Covid vaccine update: India will have another option for the vaccine in the next 2-3 days as Indian drugmaker Cipla Ltd has received regulatory approval to distribute partner Moderna Inc's COVID-19 vaccine in the country.
With this, Moderna's vaccine will be the fourth shot authorized for use in India, after AstraZeneca and partner Serum Institute of India's Covishield, Bharat Biotech's Covaxin and Sputnik V developed by Russia's Gamaleya Institute.
With concerns surrounding the Delta coronavirus variant rising globally, it is necessary to know how effective is the mRNA vaccine against new variants.
Covid-19 mRNA vaccines have demonstrated high efficacy in clinical trials — Moderna’s vaccine was found to have an impressive 94 per cent efficacy in phase 3 trials in the US — but require ultra-cold storage systems.
A new CDC study reported that a single dose of Pfizer's or Moderna's COVID vaccine was 80% effective in preventing infections. That number jumped to 90% two weeks after the second dose, the study on vaccinated health care workers showed.
Moderna also announced Tuesday that a new study showed its vaccine also produced promising protection in a lab setting against the Delta variant and others currently circulating.
“As we seek to defeat the pandemic, it is imperative that we are proactive as the virus evolves. We remain committed to studying emerging variants, generating data, and sharing it as it becomes available. These new data are encouraging and reinforce our belief that the Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine should remain protective against newly detected variants,” Stéphane Bancel, chief executive officer of Moderna, said in a statement.
The government has also reiterated in recent Health Ministry briefings that Pfizer may be coming to India, soon. Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla had in June said his firm was in the final stages of getting approval for its Covid-19 vaccine from the Indian government, adding that when approved, the pharma giant will supply one billion doses to India within this year.