Coronavirus Update
On Tuesday, Adar Poonawalla, CEO of the Indian Serum Institute (SII), announced that the company’s Coronavirus Vaccination is six months away from launch. Poonawalla also said that it will only be discussed by SII when the vaccine is being studied in Phase 3.
We don’t want to take any step in a haste. Vaccine announcement will only be made when SII gets a good and safe vaccine for India and for the world. And, this is at least 6 months from this date, Poonawalla said.
At the launch of a Compact XL machine that aims to automate molecular diagnostic test manual processes, including coronaviral RT-PCR tests, Poonawalla spoke. The machine is co-jointly designed by Serum Institute of India and Mylab Discovery Solutions. Till the vaccine comes, a large number of testing is the key and that’s another reason SII has invested in MYlab. To manage the present situation we need to test, isolate, segregate till a good cure or vaccine comes, he said.
Poonawalla also said that 32 tests per hour can be performed on this automated coronavirus testing machine. This machine can perform tests for additional ailments in addition to COVID-19, he said. Private laboratories would pay Rs 1000 per test per machine and the public would pay around Rs. 2500 per test.
Meanwhile, after Bharat Biotech’s COVAXIN, another Indian potential coronavirus vaccine from Zydus Cadila recently received approval from drug regulator for human clinical trials.
