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(Adds details on collaboration, background)
BENGALURU, Sept 29 (Reuters) - Serum Institute of India will
make up to 200 million COVID-19 vaccine doses for poorer
countries, including India, next year, as the Bill & Melinda
Gates Foundation and GAVI vaccines alliance have doubled their
funding, the company said on Tuesday.
The extra funds will help Serum boost manufacturing of the
vaccine candidates from AstraZeneca Plc and Novavax Inc
, for delivery under the COVAX scheme as early as the
first half of 2021.
The collaboration takes forward an initial agreement signed
in August by Serum, GAVI and the Gates Foundation for 100
million doses to be priced at a maximum of $3 each.
The total funding provided is now $300 million, and the
expanded collaboration also has an option for the provision of
additional doses as needed.
The so-called COVAX plan, co-led by the World Health
Organization (WHO) and GAVI, aims to deliver 2 billion vaccine
doses around the world by the end of 2021. More than 150 nations
have joined the plan, though China and the United States have
not signed up.
The global death toll from COVID-19 passed 1 million on
Tuesday, according to a Reuters tally.
India, which leads the world in the daily average number of
new infections reported, saw its coronavirus case tally rise to
6.15 million as of Tuesday.
(Reporting by Anuron Kumar Mitra in Bengaluru; Editing by
Shounak Dasgupta and Simon Cameron-Moore)
