On 26^th November, 2020, the Prime Minister Office (PMO) confirmed that Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, would be visiting the Serum Institute of India (SII) in Pune’s Hadapsar area today, on 28^th November, 2020. Scheduled to arrive around 1:00 pm and leave around 2:30 pm (as per the tentative schedule), PM Modi is likely to review the progress of vaccine production by Serum Institute.

SII is one of the global frontrunners in producing the COVID-19 vaccine (Covishield), partnered with Oxford University and AstraZeneca company to produce. The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine candidate is presently under Phase III human trials and has proven to be 70 per cent effective in the phase II trials. The enrolment of candidates for the phase III trials has been recently completed and now the results and conclusion of the phase III trials are awaited.

Following PM Modi’s visit, around a hundred Delhi-based foreign envoys, comprising Foreign Ambassadors and High Commissioners, are scheduled to visit SII on 4^th December, 2020 for a ‘familiarisation visit’.

Earlier this week, Adar Poonawalla, CEO of Serum Institute, had said that Phase 3 trials of the Covishield vaccine were underway and while UK trial results have been released, they expect the data on the Indian trials to be out within a month.