AstraZeneca to start producing potential coronavirus vaccine, says firm chief

(Karachi) AstraZeneca, the British-Swedish drug-manufacturing giant, is to start production of a potential coronavirus vaccine in a bid to meet demand if the drug proves effective.

Company's Chief Executive Pascal Soriot said this in a programme on BBC. “We are starting to manufacture this vaccine right now,” Soriot said. He said the firm would know by August whether the vaccine works or not.

He mentioned that trials of the drug are under way and it needs to to be ready for use by the time the company gets results.

The AstraZeneca chief pointed out that the drug firm is not seeking to make profit from producing the potential vaccine. "Of course, with this decision comes a risk but it's a financial risk and that financial risk is the vaccine doesn't work," he added.

"Then all the materials, all the vaccines, we've manufactured will be wasted." The company has pledged to produce two billion doses of the vaccine.

Recently, AstraZeneca received funding worth 1.2 billion dollars from United States for its efforts to get the immunization tested and ready for use.

The British-Swedish drug-manufacturer has agreed to initially supply at least 400 million doses of the vaccine and secured total manufacturing capacity to produce 1 billion doses, with first deliveries in September. The company’s development program of the vaccine includes a phase three clinical trial with 30,000 participants and a pediatric trial.