Delhi-based pharma major Mankind Pharma on Wednesday announced a collaboration with OpenAI to institutionalise artificial intelligence (AI) across its value chain, making it one of the first few Indian pharmaceutical companies to fully integrate advanced AI into its core operations.
'Pfizer India has submitted an application on December 4 to the DCGI seeking emergency use authorization for its COVID-19 vaccine in India'
A key lesson for the pharmaceutical sector in this case is to not downplay the significant impact that regulatory non-compliance can have on operations.
Earlier in April, Pfizer said that it had offered a not-for-profit price for its vaccine for the government immunisation programme in India and it remains committed to continuing engagement with the government to make the vaccine available in India.
Pfizer Ltd, the Indian arm of the world's largest pharmaceutical company Pfizer Inc, is selling four consumer health brands that are household names in India Listerine, Benadryl, Caladryl and Benylin to Johnson & Johnson Ltd for Rs 214.85 crore, as part of J&J's acquisition of Pfizer's global consumer health business in June 2006.
Call centres, once the engine room of India's BPO exports, are evolving too. Depending on the complexity, 30 to 50 per cent of voice and chat volumes are now handled by conversational AI.
Pfizer Ltd has said that its US parent company has nominated Kewal Handa as managing director of the company.
In the international market, Pfizer completed its acquisition of Wyeth in 2009.
United States Pharma giant Pfizer is in the final stages of an agreement with India to supply anti-COVID-19 vaccines, Chief Executive Officer Dr Albert Bourla said on Tuesday, observing that the domestically manufactured vaccines would be the backbone of vaccinating the Indian people.
Currently, the country is using two 'made-in India' jabs -- Covishield and Covaxin -- to inoculate its billion-plus population and has administered 20 crore doses since launching the world's largest vaccination drive in mid-January. A third vaccine, Russian-made Sputnik V, has been approved by the government and is being used on a smaller scale at present.
Providing data, it said UK's Public Health England has reported high vaccine effectiveness (87.9 per cent) against the B.1.617.2 variant, most reported in India, in an observational study (concluded on May 22, 2021).
After Chennai, it is Coimbatore, Madurai, and Tiruchirappalli, that are emerging as manufacturing hubs. Coimbatore is India's top Tier-II city in terms of the number of GCCs, according to a report by Cushman & Wakefield.
An expert panel of the country's drugs regulatory authority had recommended against granting such approval to the firm at this stage just two days ago, officials said.
The official expressed hope on the success of the five vaccines that are under different phases of trial in the country.
At $37 per dose, the Pfizer vaccine is much more expensive compared to $3 per dose for the Covishield.
Pfizer alleged India has taken steps that call into question the sustainability of foreign investments and the ability to compete fairly.
However, before the Moderna and Pfizer messenger ribonucleic acid (or mRNA) vaccines come to India via this route, the legalities around the indemnity clause will have to be settled, reports Sohini Das.
The central government is importing COVID-19 vaccines and is in talks with COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson, Union Minister of State for Home Affairs G Kishan Reddy said.
The next hearing on Pfizer's plea is slated for March 21
The company has developed detailed logistical plans and tools to support effective vaccine transport, storage, and temperature monitoring. Sohini Das and Ruchika Chitravanshi report.
After Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation Commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal claimed that Mumbai has received a bid from Pfizer in response to its COVID-19 vaccine procurement tender, Pfizer issued a statement clarifying that it has made no such bid.
Pfizer sought to participate in the Subject Expert Committee consultations towards an emergency use authorisation for its Covid-19 vaccine. However, the company representatives have been unable to participate in the meetings because of extremely short notices of a few hours or less and time-zone limitations.
Pfizer's chief executive Dr Albert Bourla told the BBC that he is of the view that annual vaccinations would be needed to maintain a "very high level of protection" against the deadly disease that has claimed over five million lives across the world.
Though there is no official word, the sources said the government is not ready to give in to the indemnity demands of the US drug manufacturers against liabilities in case of adverse effects.
Pfizer and Moderna said they won't give us vaccine and will directly talk to the Centre," Kejriwal told reporters.
Researchers at Public Health Scotland and the University of Edinburgh, UK, found that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine offered better protection against the Delta variant compared to the Oxford-AstraZeneca preventive, known as Covishield in India.
The researchers analysed 2580,021 test results from nose and throat swabs taken from 384,543 participants aged 18 years or older between December 1, 2020 and May 16, 2021.
The study also shows that levels of these antibodies that are able to recognise and fight the virus are lower with increasing age, and that levels decline over time, providing additional evidence in support of plans to deliver a booster dose to vulnerable people.
New York-based Pfizer now outsources about 15 per cent of its manufacturing capabilities. The company aims to double that figure, as part of cost-cutting measures.
Pfizer can show the FDA approval to the Indian regulator and present a case that based on whatever data submitted, the US regulator has granted a full marketing nod, says Sohini Das.
Pharma major Pfizer on Tuesday launched Viagra, a drug developed for erectile dysfunction, in the Indian market. \n
India's first mRNA platform-based vaccine will remain stable at 2-8 degrees Celsius while Pfizer-BioNTech's vaccine needs minus 70 degrees Celsius and Moderna vaccine can remain stable for six months at minus 20 degrees Celsius, reports Sohini Das.
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