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The price for the Oxford coronavirus vaccine will be around US$3 per dose in low and middle income countries, Serum Institute of India (SII) announced on Friday. This means ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 ( called Covishield in India), which is being manufactured by the Pune-based firm, will cost around Rs 225 per dose in India. In a press release, the world's largest vaccine manufacturer by volume said that Covishield vaccine will be priced at maximum US$ 3 per dose and made available to the 92 countries including in GAVI's COVAX Advance Market Commitment (AMC). Serum Institute also announced on Wednesday that it has signed a new landmark partnership with Gavi, The Vaccine Alliance and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, to accelerate the manufacturing and delivery of up to 100 million doses of potential COVID-19 vaccines for India and low-income countries. CEO Adar Poornawalla thanked The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Gavi for the key partnership of risk-sharing and manufacturing of 100 million doses of potential vaccine candidates, which will ensure equitable access at an affordable price to many countries. Recently, the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) has granted permission to SII to conduct phase 2/3 clinical trials of the vaccine developed by the Oxford University in India. The Oxford/AstraZeneca candidate, ChAdOx1 nCoV-19, is currently undergoing the late-stage, phase 3 trials in the UK and Brazil, and phase 1/2 trials in South Africa. The ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 is being seen as one of the most promising vaccine candidates developed against the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which has so far claimed at least 708,236 lives across the world. Results from the early human trials published in the medical journal The Lancet show the vaccine induces strong immune response with no safety concerns. The World Health Organization has confirmed that six vaccine candidates against the novel coronavirus have entered the phase 3 trials. Apart from the Oxford/AstraZeneca's vaccine, five other candidates that are currently in the phase 3 trials are from Moderna/NIAID, BioNTech/Fosun Pharma/Pfizer, Sinovac, Wuhan Institute of Biological Products/Sinopharm and Beijing Institute of Biological Products/Sinopharm. However, none has yet been approved for widespread use.