Premium'Allocation of doses and implementation plan within a country is a decision for local governments based on relevant health authority guidance,' the pharma company said in a statement
Amid reports of US-based vaccine manufacturing company Pfizer refusing to deal with local governments in order to provide Covid-19 doses to other countries, the company informed that it will deal with only central governments for the deployment of its vaccine outside US.
"Pfizer will supply COVID-19 vaccine only to central governments and supra-national organisations for deployment in national immunization programs," the pharma company said in a statement, according to news agency ANI.
It also added that allocation of doses and implementation plan within a country is a "decision for local governments based on relevant health authority guidance."
The announcement comes after a few Indian states including capital said that foreign vaccine manufacturing companies such as Pfizer and Moderna declined to sell coronavirus vaccines to the state government as they want to directly deal with the Centre.
"We have had talks with Pfizer and Moderna. They said they won't give us vaccine and will directly talk to the Centre," Delhi chief minister Arvinf Kejriwal said.
Moreover, Punjab official had earlier added that Moderna had refused to send vaccines directly to the state government stating that it only deals with the Centre.
Punjab Nodal Officer for vaccination Vikas Garg, had on Sunday, COVID vaccine manufacturer Moderna has refused to send vaccines directly to the Punjab government stating that according to their policy, they only deal with the Government of India and not with any state government or private parties.
In a press briefing earlier today, the Union health ministry said that India is trying to facilitate Pfizer, Moderna via central level coordination. It also said that it's working on regulatory facilitation in terms of approval, procurement-related facilitation, adding that order books of Pfizer, Moderna are full most of the time, depends on their surplus how much they can provide.
Several Indian states have already floated global tender for procurement of Covid-19 vaccines from other countries to meet the acute shortage of doses.
Meanwhile, Pfizer Inc said on Monday it has started immunizing the first patients in a new study looking at administering the company's 20-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine candidate following a booster dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 shot.
The study will include 600 adults over 65 years who will be recruited from the late-stage study of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, and will have received their second dose of the vaccine at least six months prior to entering the co-administration study, the company said.
