Panaji: The Serum Institute of India (SII), based in Pune, is hoping to develop a COVID-19 vaccine by year-end, according to SII founder and chairman Cyrus Poonawalla.

Poonawalla, in a web conversation with FICCI Flo in Pune on Tuesday, said the SII had first expected to develop a vaccine by October, but it is going to do it in December, as the first dose would be done in August and the second dose in October. Two doses instead of one are going to be more efficacious and provide a higher level of protection.

Poonawalla said there are currently five candidates for COVID-19 being developed in different parts of the world, including the one by the University of Oxford, whose phase I trial is over and phase II trial will begin in August.

He said the SII is working on a candidate called Covax, which is going to be an original vaccine, developed by Indian scientists. This vaccine is going to serve India in the long run and will be reasonably priced. He said the SII has always kept the poor in mind in developing low-cost vaccines.

Poonawalla said the SII is working on the principle that the vaccine developed by it, even if it is slightly less efficacious, has to be safe in terms of causing no side effects, reactions or any other negative results.