Within a year, a vaccine for the Covid-19 is expected, although it won’t be 100% effective said Adar Poonawalla, the chief executive officer of Serum Institute of India (SII). The Institute has been at the forefront of developing the vaccine.
Poonawalla said, “We need to be very clear this is not a 100% solution and cure. Maybe 60-70% of people who take the vaccine will have that protection, the rest may still get the disease despite being vaccinated.” He also said in an interview that the India’s shut down is a domino effect and the government should allow the people lead their normal lives with precautions.
SII has been working on two vaccine candidates among which the one for Covid-19 has partnered with US-based Codagenix which will be available by 2021.
In the next month, the Pune-based company will apply for clinical trial as well as imports of certain strains to the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI).
The institute has a budget of $100 million for the development of the vaccine, said Adar. He also said that the animal trials are already in process.
Poonawalla also said that there is going to be a surge of infections in India. “Everybody is going to see a huge number of cases coming about. These cases already existed, but no one was able to detect and test them. Now, since the testing is more vigilant, all these extra cases are going to surge and come to light.”
