Panacea Biotec aims to make 1 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccine candidate in 2022

The company said last month it would partner with US-based Refana Inc to make a potential COVID-19 vaccine, in a collaboration that expects to have over 40 million doses available early next year.

Reuters

July 08, 2020 / 16:56 IST

26 Aug, 2025 12:21

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Indian biotech firm Panacea Biotec Ltd said on July 8 it remains on schedule to produce first production quantities of COVID-19 vaccine candidate by January 2021.

Shares of Panacea Biotec rose as much as 5.9% after the news in its sharpest daily move in nearly three weeks, before trimming some gains to trade up 1.2% by 0936 GMT.

The company said last month it would partner with US-based Refana Inc to make a potential COVID-19 vaccine, in a collaboration that expects to have over 40 million doses available early next year.

"We continue to evaluate candidate vaccines in pre-clinical investigations in accordance with (our) timeline. We do not envisage the commencement of clinical studies until September this year," the company said in an emailed statement.

It has set production targets of 500 million doses for 2021 and one billion doses in 2022 for its COVID-19 vaccine candidate.

COVID-19 Vaccine

Frequently Asked Questions

How does a vaccine work?

A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine.

How many types of vaccines are there?

There are broadly four types of vaccine — one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine.

What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind?

Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time.

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Panacea Biotec aims to make 1 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccine candidate in 2022

The company said last month it would partner with US-based Refana Inc to make a potential COVID-19 vaccine, in a collaboration that expects to have over 40 million doses available early next year.

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Panacea Biotec aims to make 1 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccine candidate in 2022

The company said last month it would partner with US-based Refana Inc to make a potential COVID-19 vaccine, in a collaboration that expects to have over 40 million doses available early next year.

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