TOKYO (Reuters) – Drugmaker Pfizer Inc on Friday said it had applied for approval in Japan for the COVID-19 vaccine, which is already administered in the United Kingdom and the United States.
The Japanese government has a supply contract with Pfizer for 120 million vaccine doses of the vaccine made by Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech. (Bit.ly/2K4ntRV)
Pfizer said in a statement that it made the application to the Japanese Ministry of Health, along with providing information about tests it has performed so far.
Japan’s Cabinet Secretary-General Katsunobu Kato told a news conference before Pfizer announced that the effectiveness and safety of the vaccine would be a priority.
He said Japan hoped that all its residents would receive the vaccine in the first half of next year and that the government would make every effort for proper arrangements to achieve this.
Reporting with Elaine Lies in Tokyo and Dania Nadeem in Bengaluru; Edited by Shounak Dasgupta and Raju Gopalakrishnan