Centre inks deal for second Made-In-India Covid shot

The Centre has inked a Rs 1500 crore deal with Hyderabad-based vaccine maker Biological-E for 300 million COVID-19 vaccine doses.The vaccine, which is currently undergoing phase-3 clinical trials, is likely to be available in the next few months, the health ministry said in a statement.After Bharat Biotech's Covaxin, this will be the second made-in-India vaccine.The government is also in talks with foreign makers Pfizer and Moderna, who have insisted on an indemnity clause.Biological E., which also has a separate deal to produce about 600 million doses of Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 shot annually, said on Tuesday it entered into a licensing agreement with Providence Therapeutics Holdings to manufacture the Canadian company's mRNA COVID-19 vaccine in India.Biological-E will run a clinical trial of Providence's vaccine in India and seek emergency use approval.Besides Covaxin and Serum Institute of India's Covishield, Russia's Sputnik V will also soon be used in the country as the Modi government races to meet the target of administring one crore vaccinations a day by August. The government has drawn criticism for a slow vaccine rollout even though India is one of the world's biggest manufacturers of doses.

from Economic Times https://ift.tt/3uMGZmU