The government of India has issued a registration certificate and a permission to import Moderna’s Covid-19 Vaccine for restricted use in an emergency situation.
Mumbai-based pharmaceutical firm Cipla has reportedly received the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) approval to import Moderna’s Covid vaccine for emergency use.
Moderna has received authorisation for its Covid-19 vaccine in more than 50 countries, along with an Emergency Use Listing (EUL) from the World Health Organization (WHO).
Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel said: “I want to thank the government of India for this authorisation, which marks an important step forward in the global fight against the pandemic.
“We are committed to making our Covid-19 vaccine available around the world.”
In a separate development, Moderna has unveiled positive results for its mRNA-based Covid-19 vaccine, from the in vitro neutralisation studies of sera from vaccinated individuals.
In the studies, the vaccine was effective against all emerging variants, including the variants first identified in South Africa (B.1.351) and India (B.1.617).
It was effective against three sub-variants of B.1.617, including the Kappa (B.1.617.1) and the Delta variant (B.1.617.2) and the Eta variant (B.1.525), first identified in Nigeria.
Also, the Covid-19 vaccine was effective against the A.23.1 variant, first identified in Uganda and A.VOI.V2 initially identified in Angola.
Bancel added: “As we seek to defeat the pandemic, it is imperative that we are proactive as the virus evolves. We remain committed to studying emerging variants, generating data and sharing it as it becomes available.
“These new data are encouraging and reinforce our belief that the Moderna Covid-19 Vaccine should remain protective against newly detected variants.
“These findings highlight the importance of continuing to vaccinate populations with an effective primary series vaccine.”
