'Should have 100 million doses by Jan, India first priority for vaccine delivery': Serum Institute

A minimum of 100 million doses of Covishield - a coronavirus vaccine that on Monday morning was said to be 90 per cent effective under certain conditions - will be available by January and hundreds of million could be ready by the end of February, Adar Poonawalla of the Serum Institute of India told NDTV on Monday.

Poonawalla said he expected that some 90 percent of Serum Institute's doses were to be sold to the Indian government at around 250 rupees (US$3.00).

"Most of that 90 percent is what's going to go to the government of India and maybe 10 percent in the private market at the higher price (of 1,000 rupees)," he said.

"We're hoping for this emergency use licence so that by the end of December, January we can start rolling out some (doses)."

AstraZeneca and Oxford University said Monday that their drug had proved on average 70 percent effective at stopping the virus after trying it on 23,000 people.

The Oxford drug can be transported easily at normal refrigerator temperatures -- unlike some of the other candidates, which require extremely cold storage.