Premium'India is also expecting to receive about seven million doses of a vaccine made by Moderna Inc. from the U.S. through Covax, a program to supply Covid-19 vaccines to poorer nations,' the report further states
In order to boost Covid-19 vaccination drive in India and ease the pressure of production of vaccines, the Centre is in talks with western vaccine makers in an effort to secure tens of millions of doses in the next few months, according to a report.
India is in talks to acquire 50 million doses of a vaccine produced by Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE, the people said, according to WSJ report. "It is also expecting to receive about seven million doses of a vaccine made by Moderna Inc. from the U.S. through Covax, a program to supply Covid-19 vaccines to poorer nations," the report further stated.
Recently, US-based pharma giant Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose COVID-19 vaccine has been given Emergency Use approval in India, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said on Saturday. This is the fifth Covid-19 vaccine to get emergency approval in the country.
He said this will further boost the country's collective fight against the coronavirus infection.
"India expands its vaccine basket! Johnson and Johnson’s single-dose COVID-19 vaccine is given approval for Emergency Use in India. Now India has five EUA vaccines. This will further boost our nation's collective fight against #COVID19," the minister tweeted.
The pharma company stated that it is an important milestone that paves the way to bringing the single-dose COVID-19 vaccine to the people of India, and the rest of the world, through a collaboration with Biological E. Limited.
The five vaccines granted Emergency Use Authorisation in India are Serum Institute's Covishield, Bharat Biotech's Covaxin, Russia's Sputnik V, Moderna and now Johnson & Johnson (J&J).
In a bid to fast-track emergency approvals for all foreign produced coronavirus jabs, the central government had announced that COVID-19 vaccines which were approved for restricted use by regulators in the US, UK, Europe and Japan, or which were on the World Health Organisation's Emergency Use Listing, would not have to conduct bridging clinical trials in India.
Meanwhile, in terms of administering booster vaccine shots in the country, senior government official and , NITI Aayog Member (Health) Dr VK Paul said on Tuesday that the national expert committee on Covid-19 vaccination has discussed the issue of giving booster vaccine dose and it is being looked into very deeply
He said it must be taken as a work in progress as science is still emerging in this area.
At the same time, Paul also noted that the WHO has called for a moratorium on booster doses.
