COVID-19 vaccine company Pfizer Inc applies for emergency authorisation in India, says sources

New Delhi: A few sources have said that Pfizer Inc has applied for emergency authorisation of its vaccine candidate Pfizer for emergency use in India. The vaccine against the deadly coronavirus, Pfizer has been approved for emergency use in the United Kingdom. It was approved in the UK after it got the approval from Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), which said the vaccine met its strict standards of safety, quality and effectiveness after months of rigorous clinical trials and a thorough analysis of the data.

It Pfizer is approved for use in India, it would be the first vaccine candidate to be approved in a country with the second-highest number of COVID-19 cases.

Pfizer is a US-based company. Using advance purchase agreements, many countries like the United Kingdom, the United States, and the European Union have pre-ordered a million doses of the Pfizer vaccine. The US preordered 100 million doses, while EU and UK ordered 200 million and 40 million, respectively.

Sources say that the drug company has written to the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI). However, no reply has been given yet. The drug company, Pfizer could not immediately be reached.

However, the Indian officials said that they have high hopes on the locally tested vaccines than on Moderna or Pfizer.

It will be a challenge for our country to store the Pfizer vaccine as it requires minus 70 degrees for vaccine storage. The temp[erature cannot be reached by most of the Indian cold storages.

As of today, India has reported around 9,644,222 COVID-19 cases. A total of 9,100,792 people recovered from the disease. 140,182 succumbed to death after testing positive for the virus. India is just behind the US as per the number of COVID-19 cases.

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