NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India’s drug regulator plans to approve on Friday a coronavirus vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University for emergency use, three sources familiar with the matter said.
The decision paved the way for the spread of the vaccine in the second most populous country in the world which, after the United States, has the highest number of COVID-19 infections in the world.
Britain and Argentina have already approved the vaccine for immediate public use.
The Central India General Drug Control Agency (CDSCO), whose experts met for the second time this week, could approve a vaccine developed locally by Bharat Biotech, two of the said sources on condition of anonymity.
“Both AstraZeneca and Bharat Biotech will be approved today,” said one of the sources. “All the preparations are underway with today’s date. ”
The other sources were less certain about Bharat Biotech’s expectations.
“We are hopeful,” said another source about the vaccine developed by the Medical Examination Council of India.
A CDSCO representative declined to comment. The group is meeting a day ahead of a national test to be run here for vaccine delivery in the country with more than 10 million coronavirus infections.
More than 50 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine have already been collected by its local manufacturer, Serum Institute of India (SII), and one of the sources said the sights could begin to be transported from cold storage to Indian states. as early as Saturday.
SII said in an email that it would wait “pending final approval” before commenting.
The Indian government said on Wednesday that Pfizer Inc had sought more time to display data for a vaccine license it developed with BioNTech in Germany.
Reporting by Shilpa Jamkhandikar, Krishna N. Das and Nigam Prusty: Editing by Neil Fullick and John Stonestreet