Long Wait For India as Pfizer & Moderna Order Books Full Till 2023

Earlier in February, the expert body under India’s drug regulator declined to recommend emergency use authorisation for Pfizer’s mRNA vaccine. But as soon as the second wave skyrocketed, India, which witnessed the vaccination scarce, the government changed the plan and announced that it is no longer a compulsory to have the condition of phase 2 and 3 clinical trials in India for vaccines that had been cleared by US, EU, UK, and Japanese regulators, and listed by the WHO.

All this happened a month and a half ago and yet India has been experiencing a delay in acquiring vaccine supply from Pfizer and Moderna. And we may not get the timely vaccine despite the government’s liberalised regulatory framework for foreign vaccines. Parallel to this, there are several countries that strode ahead by waiting for delivery of their confirmed orders. The situation all commenced when the expert body under India’s drug regulator declined to recommend emergency use authorisation for Pfizer where the latter had subsequently withdrawn its application then.

Starting from the unwillingness of Pfizer with the expert body in India, that is February 3… till May 24, India has reported 1,49,017 Covid-related deaths. May has turned out to be the deadliest month since the outbreak of coronavirus. The lack of sufficient vaccines has lowed or stopped vaccinations across the country, which caused further irreparable losses. The Union Health Ministry appeared to accept this reality. “Whether it is Pfizer or Moderna, we have been coordinating at the central level… Both Pfizer and Moderna, most of the time, their order books are already full. It is depending on their surplus on how much they can provide to India. They will come back to Government of India and we will ensure that their doses can be supplied at the state level,” Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary in the Ministry, said.

On the other hand, efforts of states to procure vaccines from global manufacturers hit a roadblock. Yesterday, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal said that they have spoken to Pfizer and Moderna for vaccines but the companies refused to sell directly to them. He appealed to the centre for vaccines by claiming that the companies are willing to deal with the Government of India alone. A couple of days ago, the WHO stated that all approved vaccines such as BioTech-Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca, Johnson and Johnson, Sinopharm have proven to be effective against the mutation identified in India.