Serum Institute of India , the world's largest producer of vaccines, will begin the trial of Novavax COVID-19 vaccine in October, minister of state Ashwini Kumar Choubey informed the Lok Sabha on Friday. US drug developer Novavax Inc said on Tuesday it was doubling its potential COVID-19 vaccine manufacturing capacity to two billion doses annually under an agreement with Serum Institute of India. As part of the expanded agreement, Serum Institute will also manufacture the antigen component of the vaccine. British-Swedish firm Astrazeneca also signed a deal with Serum Institute of India to manufacture the COVID-19 vaccine developed by the University of Oxford. The advanced stage clinical trial of Oxford COVID-19 vaccine is presently going on in the country.

Source: Mint September 18, 2020 11:56 UTC