Kenya may receive 24 million free COVID-19 vaccine doses from Serum Institute: Report

Pune-based Serum Institute of India may play a crucial role in supplying the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine to Kenya and other poor countries.

Kenya, which has applied for 24 million free doses through Covax, may receive doses to cover 1.4 million individuals by June and the rest in the second half of 2021, Kenyan news website The Standard reported citing initial reports from Covax. Most of these doses will likely come from SII.

Kenya has also ordered 12 million doses that will be paid for, which will be delivered in 2022.

Covax is an initiative supported by the World Health Organization (WHO), the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and Gavi to help poor and/or developing countries gain access to COVID-19

In August 2020, SII signed a deal with Gavi to manufacture up to 100 million doses of two different vaccines from AstraZeneca and US biotech company Novavax.

AstraZeneca has contracted SII to make 1 billion doses of the vaccine for developing nations.

The vaccine candidate developed by British-Swedish drugmaker AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford has been approved for emergency use in India and the UK.

“This will go towards helping developing countries access vaccines, including the Oxford/AstraZeneca candidate,” the British High Commission in Nairobi told The Standard.

But, SII CEO Adar Poonawalla has said it will prioritise India, where the government plans to inoculate 300 million people by mid-2021.