E-Paper
India discussing ways to approve Pfizer, Moderna Covid-19 vaccines: Govt
At present, India is using three Covid-19 vaccines, Covaxin by Bharat Biotech, Covishield by Serum Institute of India (SII) and Russia's Sputnik V, for vaccinating people against the coronavirus disease.
The Centre on Monday said that India is paving way for internationally developed vaccines against Coronavirus disease (Covid-19) to enter and expediting the process for vaccines like Pfizer and Moderna.
Union health ministry secretary VK Paul said the clearance for the drugs has multiple dimensions on being asked if India is close to giving indemnity to foreig vaccine makers.
"The discussion for paving the way for internationally developed vaccines to India, is going on. The issue has multiple dimensions and we are trying to find an agreed way forward at the earliest, Paul said in a weekly press briefing.
The Covid-19 task force chief said that the government is trying to expedite the progress in every possible way.
This comes almost a week after US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer said it is in the "final stages" of getting approval for its Covid-19 vaccine in India.
Pfizer chief executive officer (CEO) Albert Bourla said he hopes the company will finalize an agreement with the Indian government soon.
"Pfizer now in final stages to get approval for Covid-19 vaccine in India. I hope very soon we will finalize an agreement with the government," Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said at the 15th Annual BioPharma and Healthcare Summit.
The vaccine was developed by Pfizer in partnership with the German firm BioNtech. It has a very high efficacy of over 90 per cent in preventing the infection.
India is still at the stage where indemnity issues need to be sorted out with respect to approving the vaccines made by foreign companies.
Paul also said the process of getting Bharat Biotech's Covaxin Emergency Use Listing (EUL) certificate from the World Health Organisation (WHO) is proceeding well.
At present, India is using three Covid-19 vaccines, Covaxin by Bharat Biotech, Covishield by Serum Institute of India (SII) and Russia's Sputnik V, for vaccinating people against the coronavirus disease.
Drug major Dr Reddy's Laboratories on Monday announced the commercial launch of Covid-19 treatment drug, 2-deoxy-D-glucose (2-DG), at a maximum retail price of ₹990 per sachet.
The company will supply the drug to major government as well as private hospitals across India, Dr Reddy's said in a regulatory filing.
