Moderna shot likely next year; Pfizer to offer 50 million jabs
While Moderna has conveyed to Indian authorities that it does not have surplus vaccines to share in 2021, there are limited prospects of Johnson & Johnson exporting its jabs from the US to other countries in the near future, the people added.
Moderna is expecting to launch a single-dose Covid-19 vaccine in India next year and is in talks with Cipla among other Indian firms, while another US giant Pfizer is ready to offer five crore shots in 2021 itself but it wants significant regulatory relaxations including indemnification, people familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.
While Moderna has conveyed to Indian authorities that it does not have surplus vaccines to share in 2021, there are limited prospects of Johnson & Johnson exporting its jabs from the US to other countries in the near future, the people added.
Two rounds of high-level meetings chaired by the Cabinet Secretary were held last week on the availability of vaccines in the global as well as domestic markets as it was felt that there is an urgent need to procure the jabs at a time the country is reeling under an unprecedented second wave of Covid-19 and a widening gap between supply and requirement. Officials from the Ministry of External Affairs, NITI Aayog, Department of Biotechnology, Law Ministry and Health Ministry were present at the meeting.
It was discussed that Moderna doesn’t have surplus vaccines to share in 2021 and that it plans to launch its single-dose vaccine for the Indian market only in 2022, for which, they are in discussion with Cipla and other Indian companies, the people said.
It is learnt that Cipla has already evinced interest in procuring five crore doses from Moderna for 2022 and has requested confirmation from the Centre with respect to stability in regulatory requirements/policy regime. The health ministry has also been asked to take an early decision on Cipla’s request regarding support required for procurement of vaccines.
In the case of Pfizer, the US pharma giant has indicated availability of five crore vaccine doses — one crore in July, one crore in August, two crore in September and one crore in October — for supply to India in 2021 that it will deal only with the Centre for and payment for vaccines will have to be made by the Centre to Pfizer India.
According to another official, for the supply of vaccines, Pfizer has asked for indemnification from the Indian government and a document in this regard has been received from Pfizer Inc.
Two vaccines are currently being used in India’s Covid-19 immunisation programme -- Serum Institute of India’s Covishield and Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin. Russian-made Sputnik V has also been recently approved by the government.
