In a move that will improve India’s access to vaccines, the single-dose COVID vaccine developed by Johnson and Johnson’s has been given approval for emergency use, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya tweeted on Saturday. With the move, India will have five vaccines for inoculation against the coronavirus pandemic.
“India expands its vaccine basket! Johnson and Johnson’s single-dose COVID-19 vaccine is given approval for Emergency Use in India. Now India has 5 EUA vaccines. This will further boost our nation’s collective fight against,” Mandaviya said.
India expands its vaccine basket!
Johnson and Johnson’s single-dose COVID-19 vaccine is given approval for Emergency Use in India.
Now India has 5 EUA vaccines.
This will further boost our nation’s collective fight against #COVID19
— Mansukh Mandaviya (@mansukhmandviya) August 7, 2021
J&J submitted its emergency use approval application on Thursday.
Earlier, J&J had approached the drug regulator for conducting a bridging trial in India, but withdrew its application as the Centre did away with the need for local trials for those vaccines that were already approved for restricted use by select regulators. These include the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the European Medicines Agency (EMA), the Japanese Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency (PMDA) and Britain’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), as well as those on the emergency use list of the World Health Organisation (WHO) besides well-established vaccines that have been administered to millions of people.