Pfizer Ready To Supply 5 Crore Doses To India

With the two ‘Made in India’ vaccines — Covishield by the SII and Covaxin by Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech, not sufficient to inoculate the 140 crore population in the country, state government began looking towards global producers for the supply of jabs. In such a situation, Russian-made Sputnik V was approved by the government and is being administered in a small scale.

US pharma giant Pfizer expressed readiness to offer 5 crore shots in 2021 but sought regulatory relaxations, including indemnification, according to sources. Meanwhile, Moderna is expecting to launch a single-dose COVID-19 vaccine in India in 2022 and is in talks with Cipla and other Indian firms for its production.

Moderna conveyed to the Indian authorities that it does not have surplus vaccines to share in 2021 and Johnson & Johnson too has limited prospects to export its vaccine to other countries in the near future. It is learnt that Cipla had shown interest in procuring 5 crore doses from Moderna for 2022 and even requested confirmation from the central government in respect of stability in regulatory requirements/policy regime. The health ministry was asked to take an early decision on Cipla’s request regarding support required by them for procurement of Moderna vaccines.

According to reports, two rounds of high-level meetings were held last week on the availability of vaccines in the global as well as domestic markets as India is reeling under the Covid crisis.

So far, 20 crore doses of vaccines were administered, since the launch of the world’s largest vaccination drive in mid-January.

Pfizer said it would be able to supply 1 crore in July, 1 crore in August, 2 crore in September and 1 crore in October to India this year and that it will deal only with Government of India. Payment for vaccines will have to be made by GoI to Pfizer India.

Further, Pfizer also sought relaxations in the regulatory regime, including relaxation in the requirement of post-approval bridging trials and dispensing the requirement of testing their vaccines in CDL (Central Drugs Laboratory).

In view of the track record of the company, similar arrangements done with other countries in the world and the current pandemic situation, an overall view may be taken to indemnify the company by the government, officials said.

Then the Centre will make arrangements for the channelization of procured vaccines in the domestic market.