AstraZeneca to make 2 billion COVID-19 vaccines

Poorer countries slated to get their supply this year

A multinational pharmaceutical and bio-pharmaceutical company has now the capability to produce 2 billion doses of a likely vaccine that can effectively curb the highly contagious coronavirus, which has been ravaging countries all over the world since March.

In a CNN report, AstraZeneca (AZN) has agreed Thursday to two deals: a $750 million deal to produce 300 million doses with international foundations the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations and Gavi the Vaccine Alliance, and with the Serum Institute of India, which enabled an additional billion doses for poorer countries.

In partnership with researchers at Oxford University, the company based in the United Kingdom is currently conducting its tests on approximately 10,000 volunteers in Britain.

Vaccine available soon

AstraZeneca says that before the end of this year, around 400 million doses will already be provided to low and middle-income countries.

The company is hoping to release the first batches of the vaccines by September. “We are starting to manufacture this vaccine right now and we have to have it ready to be used by the time we have the results,” AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot told BBC Radio.

“We are [manufacturing] in India, we are doing it in Europe, we are doing it in the US,” Soriot added. “We have established separate supply chains. One for the US, one for Europe, India, we are now looking at China.” AstraZeneca had already agreed to provide 400 million doses to the United States and United Kingdom.

AstraZeneca further said in a statement that it is building “a number of supply chains in parallel across the world to support global access at no profit.”

Normally, companies need to have their vaccines be proven to be safe and effective before resuming with the manufacturing. But in a race to beat the pandemic, several efforts are underway around the world to produce coronavirus vaccines.

Globally, there have been 6,515,796 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 387,298 deaths, reported to the World Health Organisation.