Amid a shortage of Covid19 vaccines in India, the top American pharma company Pfizer has offered 5 crore vaccine doses. However, the US giant Pfizer has set several terms and conditions like regulatory relaxations in India including indemnification.
Where almost every pharmaceutical company is providing vaccines in 2022, Pfizer has indicated the availability of 5 crore vaccines for supply this year. The company might supply 1 crore vaccine in July, 1 crore in August, 2 crores in September and 1 crore in October. Pfizer has demanded to deal only with the government of India. Payment of vaccines will have to be made by GOI to Pfizer India.
For the supply of vaccines to India, Pfizer has asked for indemnification from the government. The company has sought certain relaxations in the regulatory regime, including relaxation in the requirement of post-approval bridging trials and dispensing the requirement of testing their vaccine in Central Drugs Laboratory.
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Regarding vaccine supply in India, Pfizer spokesperson said, “Neither Pfizer nor any of its affiliated globally, including India have authorized anyone to import/ market/ distribute Pfizer-BioNTech Covid19 vaccine. We continue to have discussions with the Government of India towards making the vaccine available for use nationally.”
So far, over 14.7 crore doses of the Pfizer vaccine had been administered worldwide and there are no significant reports of adverse effects. Also, the company has done similar agreements with several countries.
The central government has suggested to consider the Pfizer Inc. issue at the earliest. National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration for Covid19 (NEGVAC) is likely to hold a meeting immediately.