'The world over, everybody is asking for the same medicines, same APIs, same KSMs.' 'However, there is just one supplier -- China -- for the entire world.'
Poonawalla said the price will be around USD 5-6 per dose with an MRP of around Rs 1,000 for the two necessary doses.
Chairperson of the COVID Task Force for All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Dr Naveet Wig on Thursday said that the COVID-19 crisis is 'a dynamic situation' and to prevent a third wave of the pandemic, there is a need to keep changing strategies.
In a joint statement posted on their respective twitter accounts, the companies said Serum Institute Chief Executive Officer Adar Poonawalla and Bharat Biotech Chairman Krishna Ella communicated their combined intent to develop, manufacture and supply the COVID-19 vaccines.
'Whenever you roll out: effectiveness is important, operational logistics are important, side effects are important and vaccine hesitancy is important.'
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Like the UK variant identified earlier, the new variant of the novel coronavirus is also driving a massive resurgence of the disease in South Africa, with experts warning the country is probably facing a much larger second wave.
In a report submitted Monday to Rajya Sabha chairman and Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs also said there was a need for a comprehensive public health law to keep a tab on private hospitals and check black-marketing of medicines.
If the pandemic persists, at least a portion of the blame should go to greed and nationalism that got in the way of the world acting together, notes Prosenjit Datta.
'Once they meet me, they know I don't need to be typecast as the Indian underdog.'
India's drug regulator Drugs Controller General of India has granted permission to Mumbai-based pharmaceutical company Cipla to import Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine for restricted emergency use in the country, official sources said on Tuesday.
Core to the planning is the rigidly-enforced closed loop that physically separates Games-related personnel from the local population
Dr Reddy's Laboratories has succeeded in developing a copycat or generic version of Pfizer's Lipitor, the world's largest selling drug which has sales of over $10 billion.
However, the "good news" is that the US vaccines are effective against the Delta variant, said Fauci, the head of the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said the COVID-19 vaccine will be available in the next few months and it is estimated that by July-August 400-500 million doses will be made available for 25-30 crore people.
To enable large-scale vaccine studies to take place across the UK, the aim is to get 500,000 people signed up by October, which is considered vital in the fight against coronavirus.
The Johnson and Johnson and Sputnik vaccines should be approved now, as should the Pfizer and Moderna ones, suggests Naushad Forbes. Leave it to the companies to figure out how to put in place the right chilling infrastructure. Don't let a lack of approvals deprive the country of availability, suggests Naushad Forbes.
Communications between the USTR and the world's most powerful pharmaceutical and trade lobbying groups reveal that many raised concerns about India's push to exempt Covid vaccines from intellectual property.
The primary objective was to get the adult vaccine as children rarely have a severe form of the disease. Once schools reopen, the demand for vaccines for children under 12 may soar.
'Better to prevent than to wait for evidence. Protection delayed can also mean protection denied'
Australia's medicines and medical devices regulator on Monday formally recognised India's Covaxin, a vaccine against the coronavirus as the country's border was reopened for the first time in nearly 20 months.
"The concrete actions are a stern indication that Government of India is making all out efforts to increase vaccine production in the country as well as attracting foreign vaccine manufacturers to supply the required vaccine doses for national Covid vaccination programme," the ministry in a statement.
According to the sources, there are limited prospects of J&J exporting its vaccine from the US to other countries in the near future and the "entire production" at the BE facilities in India, beginning July/August, will be handed over to the pharma giant under a contract between the companies.
Global pharma majors such as Novartis, Roche and Pfizer have secured 392 medicine patents in less than three years of India changing its patent laws to allow product patenting system for drugs in the country. While Swiss multinational Hoffmann La Roche leads the tally with 34 patent grants, Novartis AG and Pfizer Inc follow closely with 25 and 24 respectively.
To address the shortage of COVID-19 jabs in the country, the government is exploring the possibility of boosting production of vaccines, including identifying manufacturing sites for indigenously developed Covaxin outside India, sources said.
The Department of Health and Social Care said a total of 81,959,398 doses of COVID vaccines have been administered in the UK, with 46,227,101 people receiving a first dose (87.8 per cent) and 35,732,297 people receiving both doses (67.8 per cent).
The international team of researchers combined lab-based experiments and epidemiology of vaccine breakthrough infections, showing that the Delta variant is better at replicating and spreading than other commonly-observed variants.
Pfizer has won a patent challenge in Denmark by India's largest drug-maker Ranbaxy Laboratories on atorvastatin, the active ingredient of the world's largest selling cholesterol drug, Lipitor, which has global sales of over $13 billion.
Multinational drug manufacturers such as Pfizer and DSM are increasingly getting into contract manufacturing alliances with emerging bulk drug makers in the country, bypassing established players such as Ranbaxy and Dr Reddy's.
'You will not have a vaccine for everyone initially.'
Pfizer's blockbuster drug Viagra (sildenafil citrate), hitherto approved for use in treatment of erectile dysfunction, may soon acquire a new identity as a "life saving drug" in treating pulmonary arterial hypertension in children.
Giuliani, 76, has been taken to the Medstar Georgetown University Hospital in Washington DC, according to US media reports.
Asserting that India is on track to vaccinate its entire adult population by December, top officials on Monday said a blueprint is in place to ensure a total supply of 187.2 crore doses by the year-end that would be enough for the country's 94 crore 18-plus population.
The Biden administration had been under pressure to send the excess COVID-19 vaccines with the US to nations like India, which are facing severe vaccine shortages.
But, the process patent that existed previously had already allowed for a huge number of cheaper generics. Even so, within two months, Pfizer's Viagra had exceeded its own expectations by capturing 1.8 per cent of the market, worth around Rs 80 crore (Rs 800 million). It set an example and gave hope to other pharma companies to launch their products in India.
The Serum Institute of India, Bharat Biotech and Pfizer have applied to the DCGI seeking emergency use authorisation for their COVID-19 vaccine candidates and are awaiting approval.
The Serum Institute of India has stockpiled 40 mn-50 mn doses and is adding more every week. Most of these will come to India.
There is a process to be followed for EUL and pre-qualification of vaccines under which a company has to complete phase 3 trials and submit the whole data to the regulatory department of WHO which is examined by an expert advisory group," Swaminathan said.
An important focus of the dry run will be on management of any possible adverse events following immunisation.
In another setback to India's biggest drugmaker Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd, a court in Finland has prohibited it from marketing its generic version of Pfizer's cholesterol lowering drug Lipitor in the country.
