An artist gives final touches to wall graffiti in Kolkata honouring frontline Covid-19 warriors. (Express Photo by Partha Paul)

Meanwhile, several large pharma companies, which are currently in the middle of late stage human trials of their Covid-19 vaccine candidates, have been entering into agreements with countries on the administration of the vaccine. The Indian government, which is closely watching global developments, is working on three separate mechanisms, The Indian Express has learnt.

Given the “rapidly evolving scenario across different countries”, two high power committees are deliberating on key issues related to vaccine development, highly placed sources in the government said. The first committee, headed by Principal Scientific Adviser to the Prime Minister Dr K VijayRaghavan, is mandated to “fast track and accelerate the development of homegrown vaccines as well as the manufacture of foreign vaccines which have been given under agreement to an Indian manufacturer”, a top source said. The committee is tracking the vaccine candidates being developed by Bharat Biotech and Zydus Cadila, and is keeping close watch on phase 2-3 trials of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine candidate, the source said.

Covid-19 vaccine tracker, August 8 | Some shots produced by Serum could cost less than Rs 240 per dose

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation decided to provide $150 million in at-risk funds towards helping the Serum Institute of India rapidly manufacture the Covid-19 vaccines developed by the University of Oxford-AstraZeneca and Novavax. As part of this new agreement, SII will be responsible for delivering up to 100 million doses of the vaccines priced at $3 (around Rs 225) a dose for India and low- and middle-income countries.