New Delhi: Pfizer is in talks with the government to sell its promising covid-19 vaccine in India, and believes its candidate has the potential to be an important part of India’s initial vaccine response, said a Pfizer India spokesperson. in a statement to Mint.
“We remain committed to advancing our dialogue with the Government of India to make this vaccine available for use in the country,” said a spokesperson for Pfizer India.
Government officials, on condition of anonymity, also confirmed that India is in talks with Pfizer for its messenger RNA vaccine, along with several other domestic and foreign developers of promising vaccine candidates.
The Pfizer spokesperson added that it expects to produce up to 50 million doses of vaccines in 2020 and up to 1.3 billion doses in 2021.
“If our candidate vaccine is successful, Pfizer would allocate the doses available in the countries where we have fully executed the supply agreements,” he said.
Pfizer does not have a distribution pact so far with any company in India. Pfizer also does not have a formal agreement with Covax, Gavi’s covid-19 vaccine access initiative, and the World Health Organization (WHO).
A major bottleneck for the vaccine, like most messenger RNA candidates, is that it requires a storage temperature of -75 ° C ± 15 ° C.
The requirement for ultra-low temperature freezers, which is not available in India, is one of the main reasons why the Indian government is not enthusiastic about acquiring the vaccine being developed by Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech, said a senior official. of the government. on condition of anonymity.
The Pfizer spokesperson said the company has developed detailed logistics plans and tools to support the transportation, storage and ongoing temperature monitoring of vaccines.
“We have experience working with clients in all markets and we have developed comprehensive solutions to partner with countries to assist in the deployment of this vaccine,” the spokesperson said.
For India, among the first participants, the results of the Covishield vaccines of the University of Oxford and Sputnik of Russia, even as the first data from the Pfizer covid-19 vaccine efficacy trial stimulates sentiment globally .
Interim efficacy data from Sputnik and Covidshield are expected over the next month.
The government expects the Oxford vaccine to be the first of the block through its contract manufacturer, the Serum Institute of India.
Government officials have previously said that India could have a vaccine next month, and hopes are pinned on the efficacy trial being carried out by Covishield’s co-developer Astrazeneca around the world as well as in the bridge studies of the Serum Institute.
The bridging studies are intended to show that the vaccines produced by the Pune-based company are the same and produce similar results as the Oxford vaccine.
Astrazeneca, as recently as Oct. 23, said it anticipates late-stage trial results later this year, depending on the infection rate within communities where clinical trials are taking place.
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