In an interview with NDTV, Serum Institute of India (SII) CEO Adar Poonawalla announced that Covishield vaccine developed by Oxford-AstraZeneca is expected to be available in the country by January 2021. SII is in talks with the government for mass-production of the vaccine and if approved, around 100 million doses of the vaccine will be available by January, he added.
AstraZeneca earlier announced that Covishield has been proved 90 per cent effective without any side effects in tests conducted in England and Brazil.
"We are putting an MRP of Rs 1,000–for the private market and Rs 250 or less for the government," the Poonawalla told NDTV.
The vaccine will initially be available to one million health workers. The government aims to make around 300 to 400 million doses available by July.