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AstraZeneca aims at two billion doses with new COVID-19 vaccine deals

AstraZeneca's partnership with Oxford University has garnered international attention as one of the leading coronavirus vaccine candidates, sealing more than $1 billion in U.S. government funding last month as it ramps up testing of the vaccine and manufacturing capacity.

June 04, 2020 / 09:58 PM IST

Britain's AstraZeneca will be able to deliver 2 billion doses of its potential coronavirus vaccine this year and next, double the previous numbers, thanks to deals with the Serum Institute of India and two Bill Gates-backed global health organisations.

The company, which has already agreed to supply 400 million doses to the United States and British governments, said on Thursday it had agreed terms with the Indian company, the world's largest manufacturer of vaccines by volume, to supply one billion doses for low and middle-income countries.

AstraZeneca's partnership with Oxford University has garnered international attention as one of the leading coronavirus vaccine candidates, sealing more than $1 billion in U.S. government funding last month as it ramps up testing of the vaccine and manufacturing capacity.

It said it had also signed an agreement worth $750 million with the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and GAVI vaccines alliance, both founded by Microsoft-founder Gates and his wife, to produce 300 million doses of the vaccine.

GAVI said on Thursday it had raised $2 billion from international donors for an Advanced Market Commitment to buy future COVID-19 vaccines for poor countries, including a $100 million commitment from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

COVID-19 Vaccine

Frequently Asked Questions

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How does a vaccine work?

A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine.

How many types of vaccines are there?

There are broadly four types of vaccine — one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine.

What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind?

Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time.

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Reuters
first published: Jun 4, 2020 09:55 pm

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