The Government of India on Tuesday has introduced ‘Moderna’ as the fourth vaccine in the fight against the contagious Covid-19 infection. This approval for Moderna also hints at another vaccine Pfizer to enter the Indian market anytime soon.

Covid Task Force Chief and member of NITI Aayog, VK Paul, convened a press conference on Tuesday and said, “new drug permission has been granted to Moderna, the first internationally developed Covid vaccine.”

Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine mRNA- 1273 has been developed by the US-based pharmaceutical company in collaboration with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) in the US, where it is sold under the brand name 'Spikevax'.

As per the reports of WHO, the Moderna vaccine is effective in fighting the Covid-19 as it has shown 94.1 percent of efficacy within 14 days of the first dose. Furthermore, WHO asserts that mRNA-1273 also protect against the two latest variants including B.1.1.7 and 501Y.V2

Despite the approval, the Moderna vaccine against deadly infection has been granted restricted emergency use authorization. Moderna will also be administered in two doses.

Earlier, the Drugs Controller General of India (DGCI) has approved AstraZeneca's Covishield, Bharat Biotech's Covaxin, and Sputnik V developed by Russia's Gamaleya Institute and now US manufacturing giant Moderna is added to the list.

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While making the announcement regarding the opening of the Indian market for Moderna and mentioning that Covaxin, Covishield, SputnikV and Moderna will now be available in the fight against Covid, Paul said "India will soon close the deal on Pfizer as well".

Mumbai-based pharmaceutical company Cipla Ltd on Tuesday received approval from the DCGI to import the Covid-19 vaccine developed by Moderna Inc for restricted emergency use.

Cipla had filed an application with the DCGI on Monday to import the vaccine.

The entry of the Moderna vaccine is a significant move amid India's accelerated vaccination drive to inoculate as many people as soon as possible. The new drug would undoubtedly help better the supply constraints, besides allaying the fears of a possible third wave of the pandemic.

Earlier in the day, Johnson and Johnson had said that it is in talks with the Indian government to explore ways to speed up the delivery of its single-shot Covid-19 vaccine in the country.

So far, India has administered more than 31.90 crore (32,90,29,510) vaccine doses, including 52,76,457 doses in the last 24 hours.