This comes hours after Prime Minister Narendra Modi organized a conference with officials from various districts across the country and assured continued efforts to ‘boost vaccine supplies on a large scale’.
Biological E. J&J intends to contract approximately 600 million doses of the vaccine annually.
J&J confirmed this and said that it would be an important part of the global COVID-19 vaccine supply network and would boost supply in the country which is facing acute shortage of vaccine.
Biological E., based in Hyderabad, Telangana, plans to produce 75 million to 80 million doses of its own vaccine in a month from August.
In April, the US pharma company said that it is in discussions with the Indian government to soon begin clinical trials for its single-dose COVID-19 vaccine Janssen in the country.
The company has developed its own Janssen COVID-19 vaccine with the Boiler College of Medicine in Houston and Dynavax Technologies Corp. and received approval from India’s drug regulator in late April for a Phase III clinical trial .
It can apply to the Emergency Use Authority (EUA) based on government advice. It is currently approved for use in the United States, the European Union and other countries including Thailand and South Africa. Media reports state that the United States hopes to finance the production of at least 1 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines by the end of 2022.
“India contributes over 60 percent of the global vaccine supply and is well positioned to play a key role in supporting large-scale vaccine production to combat the global epidemic. We believe Biological E’s strong vaccine manufacturing experience will aid the rapid production of the vaccine, leveraging Janssen’s proven EDVAC® technology starting in 2021, following approval from regulators, “a statement from J&J said.