The announcement also comes after SII head, Adar Poonawallah announced the availability of the vaccine for Indian masses by 2020. In an interview with a media agency recently, he spoke at length, saying:
“We are going to start trials in less than two weeks. The trial is in partnership with ICMR. We will start manufacturing vaccines by the end of August.”
According to revised proposals, the vaccine under the offering, which will be sold and marketed as ‘Covishield’ in India, will involve candidates from a healthy age-group. SII will recruit 1,600 people above 18 years of age will participate in early trials, which will now be spread across 17 sites, which will include centres like All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi, Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences (RMRIMS) in Patna, Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research in Chandigarh, AIIMS in Jodhpur, Nehru Hospital in Gorakhpur, and JSS Academy of Higher Education and Research in Mysore.
