MUMBAI - India's Panacea Biotec has entered into a collaboration with US based Refana to develop and set-up manufacturing of COVID-19 vaccine through a joint venture in Ireland, a company statement said on Wednesday.

As part of the collaboration, Panacea Biotec will be responsible for product development and commercial manufacturing, with the Joint Venture undertaking clinical development and regulatory submissions across the World. Both Panacea and Refana will undertake sales and distribution of the vaccine in their respective territories, the statement said.

"Our collaboration with Refana aims to manufacture over 500 million doses of our Covid-19 candidate vaccine, with over 40 million doses expected to be available for delivery early next year. Whole inactivated viral vaccines have a higher probability of being safe and efficacious, given their long history and better understanding of their mechanism of action, which has been elucidated over many decades," said Rajesh Jain, Managing Director, Panacea Biotec.