Adar Poonawalla has announced that approximately 100 million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca produced coronavirus vaccine — Covishield — will be available by January 2021 in India.

Poonawalla, chairperson of the Serum Institute of India (SII), virtually sat down with NDTV to disclose more details about the vaccine. “It will be another two-three months for the vaccine to be available in India. By January we will have 100 million doses, minimum. The target set by the government is 300 to 400 million doses by July. We are putting a MRP of ₹ 1,000 – for the private market it will be around ₹ 500 or 600 (+ ₹ 200 for the distributor) and ₹ 250 or less for the government,” said Poonawalla.

The SII chief also revealed that the private market might not get their hands on the vaccine till March, since the majority of the vaccine doses will go to the government for national distribution.

“The general public is not likely to get it easily. They will have to go to government distribution points and, if the are eligible, then they will get it. Otherwise they have to wait till March… because the priority is to vaccine our most vulnerable,” he said.

Anand Mahindra Reacts To Poonawalla’s Coronavirus Vaccine Announcement

Mahindra Group chairman Anand Mahindra replied to Poonawalla’s tweet, and lauded the SII chief for his and his company’s efforts. He tweeted, “Interestingly the more effective dosage will be more economical. And the easier storage & transportability of this vaccine makes it possibly the best bet for India. This is seriously good news. Let’s get this show on the road.”

The coronavirus vaccine in question was proven to be 90% effective by British-Swedish drugmaker AstraZeneca, and there were no hospitalisations or development of severe cases of the disease in participants volunteering for the trials.