India, Jan. 14 -- image credit- freepik

With support from the epidemic preparedness organisation Norway-basedCoalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), Serum Institute of India (SII), part of Cyrus Poonawalla group, the world's largest vaccine manufacturer, has entered into a licensing arrangement with the University of Oxford to create the largest-ever reserve of an investigational Rift Valley fever vaccine ready for testing. The collaboration comes amid a deadly outbreak of the mosquito-borne disease in Senegal and Mauritania.

Under the agreement SII will manufacture up to 100,000 doses of the University of Oxford's investigational vaccine candidate, ChAdOx1 RVF. An initial 10,000 doses are planned to be used in a potenti...