The approval paves the way for the launch of the vaccine in the second most affected country in the world.
India’s drug regulator has approved a coronavirus vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford for emergency use, two sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters news agency.
Friday’s approval paves the way for its implementation in the second most affected country in the world.
A representative from India’s Central Medicines Standards Control Organization (CDSCO), whose experts are meeting for the second time this week and are also considering two other vaccines, declined to comment.
Great Britain and Argentina have already authorized the vaccine for urgent public use.
India wants to start giving injections soon.
It is also considering emergency use authorization requests for vaccines made by Pfizer Inc with BioNTech of Germany and Bharat Biotech of India.
“Both AstraZeneca and Bharat Biotech will get approval today,” one of the sources told Reuters on Friday. “All preparations are taking into account today’s date.”
The other sources were less certain about the prospects for Bharat Biotech, Reuters said.
“We are hopeful,” another source said of the vaccine developed with the government-run Indian Council for Medical Research. A representative for CDSCO declined to comment.
The group met the day before a nationwide test for vaccine delivery in the country with more than 10 million coronavirus infections.
Al Jazeera’s Elizabeth Puranam from the capital New Delhi said the approval of the vaccine would be “very welcome news” for the country for several reasons.
More than 50 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine have already been stockpiled by its local manufacturer, the Serum Institute of India (SII), and one of the sources said the injections could begin to be transported from cold storage to the states of India on Saturday. .
The SII said in an email that it will “wait for final approval” before commenting.
On Wednesday, the Indian government said that Pfizer Inc had sought more time to submit data for the emergency authorization of a vaccine it has developed with Germany’s BioNTech.
Indian health authorities expect to start a vaccination campaign for some 300 million people early next month.
At more than 10 million, India has reported the second-highest number of coronavirus cases after the United States, although its infection rate has dropped significantly from a peak in mid-September.
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