New Delhi, September 15: Amid the rise in COVID-19 cases across the globe, Novavax Inc on Tuesday announced that it had revised its deal with the vaccine manufacturing company Serum Institute of India (SII) to produce 2 billion doses of coronavirus vaccines. Earlier in August, the pact was signed between Novavax Inc and SII for one billion doses of its vaccine candidate.

Informing about the latest development, CEO of Novavax Inc Stanley C Erck said, as quoted by LiveMint, "Today’s agreement with Serum Institute enhances Novavax’ commitment to the equitable global delivery of our COVID-19 vaccine. With this arrangement, we have now put in place a global supply chain that includes the recently acquired Praha Vaccines and partnerships with leading biologics manufacturers, enabling production on three continents." COVID-19 Vaccine Latest News Update: Early Results of Novavax's NVX-CoV2373 Show No Side-Effects.

On the issue of COVID-19 trials, the company said in a statement, "We continue to work with extraordinary urgency to develop our vaccine, now in Phase 2 clinical trials, and for which we anticipate starting Phase 3 efficacy trials around the world in the coming weeks."

As per details, US-based Novavax's vaccine has shown that it produced high levels of antibodies against the novel coronavirus during the mid-stage trials. The extended pact states that SII will also manufacture the antigen component of NVX‑CoV2373, Novavax’ COVID‑19 vaccine candidate.

Apart from Novavax's vaccine, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and SII had also partnered for clinical development of a glycoprotein subunit nanoparticle adjuvanted vaccine, which too is developed by Novavax. The trial is expected to begin in the second half of October after the vaccine is manufactured by SII.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 15, 2020 06:06 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).