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By Euan Rocha and Nidhi Verma
MUMBAI/NEW DELHI, Nov 28 (Reuters) - Serum Institute of
India, the world's largest vaccine producer, sees AstraZeneca
Plc's COVID-19 vaccine candidate as a "very good"
option, giving it a major vote of confidence after some experts
raised questions around its trial data.
Serum Institute of India (SII), which has partnered with the
British drugmaker to conduct trials on its COVISHIELD vaccine in
India and produce the vaccine candidate if it secures approval,
plans to apply for an emergency use licence for the vaccine in
the next two weeks, said SII's Chief Executive Adar Poonawalla.
"This vaccine is a very good one," said Poonawalla, via a
virtual press briefing following Indian Prime Minister Narendra
Modi's visit to SII's campus on Saturday.
"What we found with COVISHIELD in its global trial is there
were zero hospitalisations, which means even if you do get
infected you're not going to have a severe attack and secondly
even those who got the disease were not infecting others," he
said.
Poonawalla's comments come as a boost to AstraZeneca after
some scientists raised doubts about the robustness of results
showing the shot was 90% effective in a sub-group of trial
participants who, by error initially, received a half dose
followed by a full dose.
He also noted that the AstraZeneca vaccine, along with the
vaccine from Novavax - the U.S. vaccine developer that
SII has also partnered with - offered a significant edge over
the vaccine candidates of certain rivals, which need to be
stored at much lower temperatures.
"Both our vaccine candidates can be stored in 2 Celsius to 8
Celsius and India has lot of storage and infrastructure for that
temperature range. It has slightly less storage capacity for -20
C and almost nothing for -70 C," said Poonawalla.
U.S. vaccine developers Moderna and Pfizer
recently announced strong efficacy results on their respective
vaccine candidates, but both of their vaccines need to be stored
at very low temperatures that would present challenges for many
developing economies.
Moderna has said its vaccine can be stored at normal fridge
temperatures of 2 to 8 degrees Celsius for 30 days and it can be
stored for up to 6 months at -20C. Pfizer's experimental vaccine
must be stored at -70C over longer durations.
(Reporting by Euan Rocha and Nidhi Verma;
Additional reporting by Shilpa Jamkhandikar;
Editing by Alex Richardson and David Evans)
