FILE PHOTO: Vials with a sticker reading, “COVID-19 / Coronavirus vaccine / Injection only” and a medical syringe are seen in front of a displayed Pfizer logo in this illustration taken October 31, 2020. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/File Photo
December 6, 2020
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Pfizer Inc has applied for emergency use authorisation of its coronavirus vaccine in India, media said on Sunday, the first to do so in a country with the world’s second-highest number of infections.
The U.S. company, whose vaccine was recently approved by the British government, has written to the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI), CNN-News18 reported citing a government source.
Officials at the DCGI and the health ministry did not respond to requests for comment. A government official, however, told Reuters that no application had been received as of Saturday night.
Pfizer could not immediately be reached.
Indian officials have said they are pinning their hopes mainly on locally tested vaccines instead of those developed by Pfizer and Moderna Inc.
The Pfizer shot needs to be stored at minus 70 degrees Celsius (-94 F) or below, temperatures that most Indian cold storages cannot reach.
India has reported more 9.57 million COVID-19 cases, behind only the United States, with nearly 140,000 deaths.
(Reporting by Mayank Bhardwaj, Devjyot Ghoshal, Neha Arora; Editing by Clarence Fernandez and William Mallard)
