Pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca has promised not to profit from its COVID-19 vaccine, developed in partnership with Oxford University, during the pandemic as the company reported it was on track with late-stage trials for the treatment.
AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot made the promise during an online media interaction on Thursday, saying that a vaccine needed to be accessible to as many people as possible.
“We felt, there is a time in life when companies need to step up and make a contribution. This is the kind of time in history when humanity, humankind is really threatened as a whole,” he added.
He also informed that the vaccine development was progressing well. “We have had good data so far. We need to show the efficacy in the clinical programme, but so far, so good,” he said.
AstraZeneca has already reached deals with countries to make more than 2 billion doses of its experimental COVID-19 vaccine and says it could be approved by the end of this year, news agency Associated Press reported.
The company has also reached a licensing agreement with the Pune-based Serum Institute of India to manufacture the vaccine in the country.
Serum Institute has said it would start making the vaccine before the last order was received so that it could be ready in sufficient quantities by the time all permissions were granted.
Also Read: Serum Institute Asked To Amend Oxford COVID-19 Vaccine Trial Protocol
