New Delhi: India’s vaccination kitty expanded with the drug regulator granting permission to import Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine for restricted emergency use.


Mumbai-based pharma company Cipla has got the approval to import the US-based Moderna's Covid vaccine, which makes it the fourth vaccine to be administered in the country after Bharat Biotech's Covaxin and Serum Institute of India's Covishield. Russia's Sputnik recently joined the list of vaccines.


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The US-based company has initiated the process through an application from their Indian partner Cipla, following which Moderna’s vaccine has been given restricted emergency use authorisation by the drug regulator, informed NITI Aayog member Dr VK Paul at a press briefing.


Paul said that the government will continue to approve foreign-made vaccines by companies such as Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson for emergency use. “We are also looking at increasing the production of availability of vaccines that are being manufactured in our country,” added Paul.


Check list of other vaccines approved in India so far


Moderna:  It is an mRNA vaccine which comprises of fragments of the genetic material called messenger RNA. The vaccine works by giving cells temporary instructions to make the coronavirus spike protein. The protein is found on the surface of the Covid-19 virus.


India will get a certain number of doses under the US initiative Covax, a programme by WHO and GAVI which ensures equitable distribution of the vaccines. As per the research trials, the mRNA vaccine administered in two doses, is found to be effective 95.4 per cent against Covid cases for males and 93.1 per cent for females.


In fact, a study by US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that just a single dose of Moderna reduced the risk of infection by 80 per cent two weeks or more after the first of two shots. CDC recommends a gap of 28 days between the two doses.


In November, the company had said that its vaccine has proven to be 94.5 per cent effective against the coronavirus during its phase three trials.


Covishield


One of the first vaccines against Covid-19 to get approved in India was the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine produced by the Serum Institute of India. According to experts, one dose of Covishield is more than 70 per cent effective to protect against severe symptoms and hospitalisation particularly the Delta variant of the SARS-CoV2 coronavirus.


The government has recommended a gap of 4-6 weeks in February for Covishield which was expanded to 6-8 weeks in March, and finally to 12-16 weeks in May.


Covaxin


The second vaccine to be approved is indigenously produced Bharat Biotech’s vaccine named Covaxin, The vaccine was approved for emergency use at the stage of trials. The vaccine has proved to reduce symptomatic cases by 77.80 per cent, as per the data from its phase 3 trials, which was reviewed by the Subject Expert Committee (SEC) of the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO). The vaccine is developed using Whole-Virion Inactivated Vero Cell derived platform technology.


The pharma company has recently submitted its proposal for Emergency Use Listing approval by the World Health Organisation.


Sputnik V


The third vaccine in the line to get approval is the Russian vaccine Sputnik V. It has been developed by Gamaleya National Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology in Moscow. It uses a different vector for each of the two shots in a course of vaccination. The vaccine has been approved for emergency use in May.


Hyderabad-based Dr Reddy’s Laboratories partnered with the Russian sovereign fund RDIF, to distribute the doses in India. The Lancet publication said the vaccine has an efficacy of 91.6 per cent.


The maximum price fixed by the government for private Covid-19 Vaccination Centres (CVCs) is Rs 780 per dose for Covishield, Rs 1,410 per dose for Covaxin. Sputnik V is priced at Rs 1,145 per dose.