Pfizer, US pharma major, is in it’s final stages to get the approval for the COVID-19 vaccine in India. Albert Bourla, Pfizer CEO, said that he hopes that very soon they will finalise an agreement with the government.
The development came in the middle of the reports that the Indian government was in talks with the US pharma major to find a middle ground for supplying vaccines in India.
Vinod Kumar Paul, government advisor, said that the final decision on the vaccines import has to be in compatibility with the Indian laws and the government was hopeful that these vaccines availability in the country would be before the end of this year.
It had been noted that India was close to granting indemnity to the foreign COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers such as Moderna and Pfizer. And according to a report, the indemnity would be granted to the foreign vaccine manufacturers; the report said that if one company got it, then all of the others get it.
India, in April, invited Moderna, Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer to supply their vaccines in the Indian market in the middle of the second wave of the COVID-19 virus. Any deal has not yet been signed by India with the pharma giant as the pharma company has reportedly not supplied vaccines in any country without signing an indemnity for the adverse effects of their vaccines on the population.
Pfizer vaccine could be available in India by August as per the speculations. Pfizer however has not issued any official statement for the same. The Government had accepted one of the conditions of the company already, to do away with trials on the local population.
The first recipients of Pfizer shot would be monitored before a mass roll-out across the whole population, as said in the reports.