Niti Aayog member DR VK Paul, on Friday, 9 July, said that the government is working actively with coronavirus vaccine manufacturer Moderna to gauge how the vaccine can be important and made available in India.
According to PTI, Dr Paul said:
"Moderna vaccine is under emergency use authorisation. The government is working actively with the manufacturers to see how to make this vaccine available in the country, importing it into the country, those efforts are on the process that has to be gone through is being actively pursued."Dr Paul
WHAT ABOUT THE ZYDUS CADILA JAB?
On being asked about the Zydus Cadila vaccine, the Niti Aayog member reportedly informed that the company had submitted the results of its third phase trials to the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) last week and scientific evidence is being investigated. He also said that the process of information exchange is underway.
Further, Dr Paul informed that children were also included in the Zydus Cadila trial and that following the evaluation of all the data "through scientific process" the recommendations will be followed. Paul added that, "If there is enough evidence to support vaccination by this vaccine for children between 12-18 years then that will also be provided at that time depending upon the robustness of the data and scientific evidence."
"We should wait for that process to be over and for a decision to be made by the scientific system in the DCGI."Dr VK Paul, as per PTI
BACKGROUND
Previously, on Tuesday, 29 June, Dr Paul had announced in a press meet that the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) granted permission to Mumbai-based pharmaceutical firm Cipla to import Moderna COVID-19 vaccine for restricted emergency use in India.
Meanwhile, Zydus Cadila has applied for emergency use authorisation seeking approval from the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) to launch ZyCoV-D – a DNA vaccine against COVID-19 – for those aged 12 years and above, news agency ANI reported on Thursday, 1 July.
(With inputs from PTI)
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