India’s Covid-19 vaccine basket is all set to expand to offer four vaccines — Covaxin, Covishield, SputnikV and Moderna — while a deal is in offing with Pfizer as well.
Drug regulator DCGI granted permission to Mumbai-based pharmaceutical company Cipla to import Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine from the USA for restricted emergency use in the country. Moderna had applied for permission through its Indian partner, Cipla.
“This potentially opens up a clear possibility... of this vaccine being imported into India in the near future,” Dr VK Paul, Niti Aayog member (Health) told reporters on Tuesday at a presser here. “Our vaccine basket is now richer (with) this addition,” he said, adding the Government has also held talks with Pfizer.
India has now given restricted-use permission, or emergency-use authorisation, for four vaccines.
The three others are Covishield, known elsewhere as AstraZeneca; indigenously developed Covaxin; and Russia’s Sputnik V. Currently, Covishield and Covaxin are the two main vaccines being given to people across the country.
Meanwhile, Johnson & Johnson (J&J) said on Tuesday that it was in talks with the Indian Government to explore ways to speed up the delivery of its single-shot Covid-19 vaccine in the country. The company would no longer undertake local trials for its vaccine, after India’s decision to scrap bridging clinical trials for vaccines approved by regulators in other nations. The decision was taken in a bid to accelerate its vaccination rollout amid a deadly second coronavirus wave.
On Tuesday, 35,15,384 Covid-19 vaccines were administered, which is very low when compared in the past few days when the revised Covid-19 vaccination was launched on June 21. In the last eight days, the Government has inoculated 4.61 crore doses.
“More than 31.83 crore (31,83,36,450) vaccine doses have been provided by the Government while more than 78 lakh (78,44,885) balance and unutilised Covid vaccine doses are still available with the States/UTs to be administered,” said an official from the Union Health Ministry.
Furthermore, more than 15,18,560 vaccine doses are in the pipeline and will be received by the States/UTs within the next 3 days, he said.