India shipping 3 million vaccine doses to Saudi Arabia

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The Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII) will provide Saudi Arabia with 3 million COVID-19 vaccine doses priced at $5.25 each in about a week’s time, company CEO Adar Poonawalla told Reuters news agency in an interview.</p>
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The shipment is being made on behalf of British pharma giant AstraZeneca with whom SII has an agreement to manufacture the vaccine. SII, the world’s biggest vaccine manufacturer, is also supplying South Africa with 1.5 million doses at the same price of $5.25 on behalf of AstraZeneca.</p>
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The price at which the vaccine is being supplied to South Africa has triggered some controversy as it is higher than the $3 a dose for other African countries. However, AstraZeneca has said that South Africa does not fit into the same category as the less developed African countries. The UK pharma giant has also said it will not profit from the vaccine during the pandemic.</p>
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Brazil last week received 2 million doses of the vaccine from SII and Poonawalla said it also paid about $5 per dose.</p>
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Poonawalla also told Reuters that SII was not supplying vaccines for Europe “because then that would mean supplies to Africa and India would suffer, and we certainly don’t want that.”  He said only once this demand was met would he be able to look at other, richer nations.</p>
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He indicated that this would take at least six months to a year.</p>