Adar Poonawalla, chief executive officer of Serum Institute
of India, on Monday congratulated related parties for the successful early
trial results of the Covishield vaccine, which has been developed in SII’s Pune
laboratory based on a master seed from Oxford-AstraZeneca.

“I am delighted to hear that, Covishield, a low-cost,
logistically manageable & soon to be widely available, #COVID19 vaccine,
will offer protection up to 90% in one type of dosage regime and 62% in the
other dosage regime. Further details on this, will be provided this evening”, Poonawalla
tweeted, retweeting an article from the University of Oxford.

Read more: COVID vaccine developed by Oxford, AstraZeneca is 70% effective

The vaccine developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca,
on the other hand, has clocked an efficacy rate of 70.4% according to interim
data.

“This vaccine’s efficacy and safety confirm that it will be
highly effective against COVID-19 and will have an immediate impact on this
public health emergency,” AstraZeneca chief executive Pascal Soriot said in a
statement.

Read more: Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine candidate could get UK approval this week: Report

The vaccine, however, has produced lower average efficacy
rate compared to coronavirus vaccines produced by Pfizer and Moderna, both of which
have hit efficacy rates of more than 90%.