PM Modi Begins 3-City Vaccine Review Tour

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit India’s three pharma majors on Saturday to personally review the development of COVID-19 vaccine and the manufacturing process.

“As India enters a decisive phase of the fight against COVID-19, PM Narendra Modi’s visit to these facilities and discussions with the scientists will help him get a first-hand perspective of the preparations, challenges and roadmap in India’s endeavour to vaccinate its citizens,” the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) had tweeted on Friday.

The PM began his three-city vaccine tour with a visit to Zydus Cadila’s plant at Changodar near Ahmedabad, NDTV reported. He will be at the plant for an hour, an official said.

The drug maker has announced that the first phase of clinical trial of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate, ZyCoV-D, has been completed and it commenced the second phase of clinical trials in August.

From Ahmedabad, the PM will fly to Pune where Serum Institute of India (SII), which has partnered with global pharma giant AstraZeneca and Oxford University for a COVID-19 vaccine, is based.

He is expected to review the status of the vaccine, including its launch, production and distribution mechanisms during the visit.

The PM will then travel to Hyderabad and visit Bharat BioTech, which is working on Covaxin, pitched as India’s first indigenous vaccine candidate.