In clear indications that the UK is eyeing Covishield procurement directly from Serum Institute of India (SII), Britain’s drug regulator is auditing manufacturing processes at the drug manufacturer's facility in India, Reuters reported citing sources. This could pave the way for AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine to be shipped from India to the UK and other countries.
The world's largest vaccine manufacturer, Serum Institute, is currently mass producing the AstraZeneca-Oxford University vaccine, for dozens of poor and middle-income countries but not the UK, which has been getting its supply of the shot primarily from domestic facilities.
Once the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) gives its nod, it would make way for the drug to be exported to the UK and other countries.
Reportedly, the UK has expressed an interest in purchasing vaccines from SII; however, the volumes or timelines for any such purchases were unclear.
The UK has so far ordered 100 million doses of AstraZeneca’s vaccine.
On Monday, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has granted an emergency authorisation to AstraZeneca's coronavirus vaccine, a move that should allow the UN agency's partners to ship millions of doses to countries as part of a UN-backed programme to tame the pandemic.
The WHO's green light for the AstraZeneca vaccine is only the second one the UN health agency has issued after authorising the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in December. Monday's announcement should trigger the delivery of hundreds of millions of doses to countries that have signed up for the UN-backed COVAX effort, which aims to deliver vaccines to the world's most vulnerable people.
