Serum Institute of India Invests in UK Vaccine Maker to Produce More COVID-19 Vaccines

Serum Institute of India (SII) is the world’s biggest vaccine maker. It’s responsible for manufacturing AstraZeneca’s AZD1222 COVID-19 vaccine in India, where it goes by Covishield.

Its UK subsidiary Serum Life Sciences recently invested $68 million (£50 million) in gene and cell therapy biotech Oxford Biomedica. The funding will boost Oxford Biomedica’s capacity to produce COVID-19 vaccines and potentially open up 120 high-skilled job opportunities to the region.

Expand Vaccine Production Capacity at Oxford Site

Oxford Biomedica has an 84,000 square feet production site in Oxford called Oxbox. It contained 4 GMP manufacturing suites. 3 suites are for COVID-19 vaccine manufacturing and 1 focuses on lentiviral vector-based products. The investment will fund the expansion and use of 39,000 square feet of space in Oxbox to enhance production of viral vector-based products, including COVID-19 vaccines. The expansion is expected to begin operations in mid-2023.

Serum Life Sciences is a UK-based firm that sells COVID-19 vaccines produced by the Serum Institute of India. Its pipeline included adenovirus vaccine Covishield developed by AstraZeneca, subunit vaccine NVX-CoV2373 by Novavax, RBD-based vaccine RBD HBsAg VLP by SpyBiotech, and lastly, the attenuated vaccine CDX-CoV by Codagenix.

SII’s Other COVID-19 Vaccine Deal

SII’s other subsidiary Serum Institute Life Sciences Private Limited (SILS) struck a COVID-19 vaccine deal with India’s Biocon Biologics Limited (BBL) on September 16. The collaboration will provide BBL with 100 million doses of vaccine annually for 15 years while Serum Life Sciences will receive 15% of BBL’s stake which is worth around $4.9 billion.

In addition, the two firms will work together on antibodies for infectious diseases such as Dengue and HIV.

Author

Tyler Chen

"Never go to a doctor whose office plants have died."- Erma Bombeck