Serum Institute of India (SII) CEO Adar Poonawalla has said that Covishield, a coronavirus vaccine candidate, could be ready as early as December this year while the first batch comprising 100 million doses may be available by the early 2021. He, however, added that a lot would depend on approvals by the Health Ministry.

For the uninitiated, India is the manufacturing partner of Covishield, developed jointly by the University of Oxford’s Jenner Institute’s and AstraZeneca. The Pune-based firm, SII, is looking after the trials at 17 trial sites across India.

A UK media report earlier this month said Covishield, which is also being tested there, could be cleared by health regulators in that country by end-2020 and be rolled out within six months.