AstraZeneca Plc, a pharmaceutical & biopharmaceutical company, is reportedly in talks with governments across the globe to strike up new COVID-19 vaccine production agreements. The company has recently made a similar deal with the British government.

People with knowledge of the matter have stated that the company is engaged with various international governments and organizations to fulfill its objective of producing an effective, safe, and globally accessible vaccine as soon as possible. These organizations include CEPI (Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations) and GAVI (Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization). They will reportedly make efforts to deliver this vaccine at no profit, alongside working on the parallel supply chains to deliver the doses of the vaccine around the world. The company is currently establishing various regional supply chains for India, China, Europe, the Americas, and the rest of the world.

Alok Sharma, British business minister, has recently unveiled a deal formed with AstraZeneca and the Oxford University to produce a vaccine for use against the coronavirus. As per the deal, the company will manufacture over 30 million doses of the vaccine by September, which is a part of its commitment to offer a total of 100 million doses for British people.

London also made a pledge of 65.5 million pounds in funding to develop a vaccine at the University of Oxford as well as 18.5 million pounds for associated work at the Imperial College London, under the agreement. The University of Oxford signed a deal with AstraZeneca to leverage its assistance in further distribution, global production, and development, in April. The University has also contributed to the initial trial of the ChAdOx vaccine.

A leading researcher of the vaccine at Oxford recently stated that the vaccine will be priced as low as possible to ensure wide access to the population and will be produced at a huge scale.

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