Codagenix Inc said on Tuesday Serum Institute of India has started manufacturing the U.S. biotech firm’s potential COVID-19 vaccine and it expects to begin early-stage human trial of the vaccine by the end of 2020 in the UK.

Serum Institute, the world’s largest vaccine maker by number of doses produced, will develop Codagenix’s CDX-005, which is delivered intranasally rather than via an injection.

Serum Institute is working on several vaccine candidates for the novel coronavirus - including potentially mass-producing the one from AstraZeneca-Oxford University that has garnered global headlines - as well as developing its own.

More than 150 potential vaccines are being developed and tested globally, with 38 in human trials, and candidates from Moderna Inc, Pfizer Inc and AstraZeneca Plc are already in late-stage trials.

https://www.reuters.com/article/health-coronavirus-codagenix/serum-institute-starts-manufacturing-codagenixs-potential-covid-19-vaccine-idUSKCN26D1OT

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The Union Health Ministry on Tuesday announced that phase III trials of the Oxford vaccine will begin this week in India.

It is likely that the Oxford University vaccine candidate -- Covishield -- will be the first one to move into production in India, sources have indicated to India Today TV.

The Oxford vaccine will begin phase III trials at 20 centres in India predominantly in Pune and Mumbai in Maharashtra and Ahmedabad in Gujarat. In this phase, the vaccine will be administered to 1,600 people.

"Some 20 different sites and hospitals across the country have been chosen, covering five different regions that are Covid-19 hotspots. We seek to conduct trials across 11-12 hospitals in partnership with ICMR," said a spokesperson of the Serum Institute, the Indian production partner of the Oxford vaccine.

https://www.msn.com/en-in/entertainment/hollywood/oxford-covid-19-vaccine-phase-3-trials-begin-in-india-what-to-know/ar-BB186w6f?ocid=ob-tw-enin-476

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A lot of people are paying attention to every utterance from Bill Gates, America’s billionaire-cum-conscience in the coronavirus era, about the United States’s response to the pandemic. But much less attention is paid to what Gates is actually pouring his fortune into: steeling the rest of the world for the coronavirus vaccine they will need next year.

Gates on Friday said that he and his foundation would spend $150 million to distribute vaccines, if they are found, to some of the world’s poorest people. It’s one of the largest financial commitments for coronavirus response to date from Gates, the world’s second-richest person. The Gates Foundation is handing the money to the Serum Institute, the largest manufacturer of vaccines globally by volume, to produce 100 million doses that would cost at most just $3 each.

Gates has been among the foremost leaders on vaccine production over the last two decades, spending $4 billion on the global vaccine development effort known as Gavi. And for months, the billionaire has expressed profound worries that while rich countries may fare okay at surviving the coronavirus, that the pandemic will devastate poor countries that can’t afford to administer the treatment, whenever it arrives.

“We’re trying to make sure we can end it not just in the rich countries,” Gates said in an interview with Bloomberg this week, stressing that he is focusing on the vaccines in development that would be affordable in the developing world, such as those being pursued by the pharmaceutical companies AstraZeneca and Novavax. “Those are the ones most scalable and low-cost.”

What Gates is essentially doing is deploying his bank account to set a “ceiling price” for the vaccines being developed by those two companies. Serum is preparing to manufacture those vaccines for India, where Serum is based, and up to 91 other poor or middle-income countries.

https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/8/8/21359227/bill-gates-foundation-coronavirus-vaccine-serum-astrazeneca-novavax

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The Serum Institute of India said it will partner with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and international vaccine alliance GAVI to manufacture and deliver 100 million COVID-19 vaccine doses for India and other low- and middle-income nations as early as 2021.

The institute said on Friday it will get funding to support manufacturing for candidate vaccines from AstraZeneca and Novavax.

https://www.reuters.com/article/health-coronavirus-india-vaccine/indias-serum-institute-to-partner-with-gates-foundation-to-make-covid-19-vaccine-idUSL4N2F92W5

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Mumbai, which was the worst-affected city in the country in the first three months of the pandemic, has now seen some relief with the number of new cases being reported in the city seemingly plateauing.

On a day Mumbai recorded its highest coronavirus testing figures with almost 9,000 tests, only around 700 positive cases were reported from these tests. From the 8,776 tests conducted on Monday, around 700 samples were positive, which is the lowest in the last 100 days.

The country's financial capital reported 1,033 COVID-19 cases on Monday from tests conducted on Sunday. The doubling rate in the city is 68 days now and Mumbai's recovery rate is at 73 per cent. The overall growth rate of coronavirus cases in Mumbai from July 20 to July 26 was 1.03 per cent.

On Monday, the entire state of Maharashtra recorded 7,924 cases and 227 deaths. Mumbai reported  1,021 cases and 39 deaths. Mumbai has reported 6,132 deaths so far.

https://www.ndtv.com/mumbai-news/mumbai-sees-record-low-covid-cases-in-24-hours-a-first-in-100-days-2270023

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The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) on Thursday said that it aims to launch the Coronavirus vaccine being developed in partnership with Hydereabad-based Bharat Biotech for public health use by August 15.

This is as per a letter written as internal communication by ICMR to Bharat Biotech asking for fast-tracking of the indigenous vaccine with an aim to launch by August 15.

"It is envisaged to launch the vaccine for public health use latest by 15th August 2020 after completion of all clinical trials. BBIL is working expeditiously to meet the target, however, final outcome will depend on the cooperation of all clinical trial sites involved in this project," the letter says.

https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/trends/coronavirus-vaccine-icmr-says-covaxin-to-be-launched-by-august-15-5501921.html

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A vaccine for coronavirus may be available in the market as early as the end of September, the chief of the world's largest vaccine maker has told NDTV.

"That's what we hope to do by the end of May- we hope to start producing this vaccine so that by the time the trials get over in September, we could have a product that we can give to the Indian people and the world and not have to wait another 6 months after that to manufacture the vaccine," Adar Poonawalla, the chief of Serum Institute of India

The Pune-based Serum Institute of India is working with scientists in the UK and the US to manufacture a vaccine for the global pandemic that has infected more than 3 million people and cost 209,661 lives.

The Serum Institute chief said he has faith in the Oxford team, which was successful in coming up with a vaccine for the Ebola virus. His organisation also had a tie-up with them for the malaria vaccine, said Mr Poonawalla.

Besides Oxford, his firm also has a tie-up with US firm Codagenix, which, he said, is using a live attenuated virus to develop its vaccine and is conducting animal trials with it. "It is a couple of months behind Oxford," he added.

https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/covid-19-vaccine-likely-by-september-says-indian-firm-partnering-oxford-2219337

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As the lockdown to stop the spread of coronavirus in India continues, pollution levels across much of the country have dropped sharply. Now some residents in northern India say they can see the snow-capped Himalayas 200 kilometres away for the first time in 30 years.

“We can see the snow-covered mountains clearly from our roofs. And not just that, stars are visible at night. I have never seen anything like this in recent times,” says Mr Seechewal, who has been working to raise awareness of environmental pollution for over 30 years.

https://www.sbs.com.au/language/english/audio/himalayas-visible-for-first-time-in-30-years-as-pollution-levels-in-india-drop