Serum Institute of India to provide 10 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine to the UK

On Tuesday the government of UK has stated in a statement that it shall receive 10 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine that is being manufactured by the Serum Institute of India (SII), a weapon to fight against the deadly coronavirus.

The largest manufacturer of vaccine by volume in the world, SII, is producing the AstraZeneca vaccine on a large scale, in collaboration with Oxford University, for the huge mass of the poor and middle-income countries.

A spokesperson of the UK government has reported to Reuters, “The UK has ordered 100 million doses of AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine, of which 10 million doses will come from the Serum Institute of India”.

In the month of February, Reuters stated the Medicine and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency of Britain (MHRA) was entrusted with the role of auditing the manufacturing procedure at SII in order to facilitate the shipment of AstraZeneca vaccine there to the UK.

Such is a movement is bound to gain concern as the rich Western countries are procuring the doses of the vaccine at the cost of the poor countries.

A queue of low-and-middle-income countries starting from Bangladesh to Brazil are being dependent on the AstraZeneca vaccine developed by SII, branded as COVISHIELD, but the demand has been more from the Western countries.

The COVAX programme backed by the World Health Organization and GAVI vaccine alliance is also receiving the doses.

According to the government of UK, there has been a firm assurance in the agreement from the SII that in spite of providing the doses of the vaccine to the UK, there shall be a least impact on the commitment to provide the vaccines to the poorer countries.

In sync with official data, with almost 20.5 million people getting the first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine yet, Britain has been far ahead in terms of inoculating the residents.

On Monday, Reuters reported that the drug regulator of the European Union is auditing the manufacturing site of SII. In the second half, AstraZeneca has promised to provide 180 million doses to the EU.