India inks deal with domestic vaccine maker Biological-E for 300M doses

By Shuriah Niazi

NEW DELHI (AA) – India’s government on Thursday said it has signed a deal with domestic vaccine maker Biological-E for 300 million COVID-19 vaccine doses for 15 billion Indian rupees ($205 million), a Health Ministry statement said on Thursday.

“The COVID-19 vaccine of Biological-E is currently undergoing Phase-3 clinical trial after showing promising results in Phase 1 and 2 clinical trials,” the statement said, adding it is a RBD protein sub-unit vaccine and is likely to be available in the next few months.

“These vaccine doses will be manufactured and stockpiled by Biological-E from August-December 2021,” it said.

More than 213 million coronavirus vaccine shots have so far been administered in India, world’s second most populous country, with 43.6 million people fully vaccinated, according to Our World in Data, a tracking website.

India witnessed an exponential rise in the daily cases and deaths last month as the country struggled with the second wave of the pandemic. The daily cases and deaths had crossed 400,000 and 4,500 respectively.

While the daily cases started showing a downward trend, the country's vaccination program received a setback as several states have reported insufficient stocks of vaccines.

India reported 134,157 more COVID-19 cases and 2,887 deaths over the past 24 hours, the ministry said. The country’s total COVID-19 caseload now stands at 28.4 million, while death toll are at 337,989.