Moderna vaccine to be available at select hospitals by Mid-July

US drugmaker Moderna’s Covid-19 messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine is likely to reach India this week and will be available in a few major government hospitals by the middle of this month, people in the know told ET. Health officials expect Moderna vaccines to reach hospitals by July 15 for administration. While the vaccines may reach India this week, the distribution to hospitals will take another week or so.

Last week, Indian’s drug regulator granted permission to Cipla to import donated doses of Moderna from the US. The vaccine doses, which are being imported by Cipla, will be given to the central government and will be available in select metros which have hospitals where the vaccine can be stored easily, the same people said.

Long-term storage of about seven months for the Moderna vaccine needs to be at -20 degree Celsius. It can be kept at 2-8 degrees Celsius — the same as for Covishield and Covaxin — for a month. It is administered in two doses, 28 days apart and has demonstrated an efficacy of 90%. “The vaccines will be available in those government hospitals or medical colleges where ultra-cold chain equipment is available,” said a senior government official.

A month ago, the Joe Biden administration unveiled plans to donate vaccines to countries which were seeing a spike in Covid-19 cases. While India is supposed to get 25 million vaccines from the US, it is not yet clear how many doses Moderna is donating to India. “Several million doses of Moderna will be available in tranches but the number is yet not known,” added the official.

The clearance to Moderna in India is the first such approval given under the revised guidelines issued in April allowing fast-track authorisation of Covid-19 vaccines that have been approved by the WHO or the regulatory authorities of the US, the UK, European Union and Japan.

This is likely to make Moderna the fourth vaccine to be used in India after Covishield, Covaxin and Russia’s Sputnik V. Cipla will not need separate approval as and when it works out a commercial deal with Moderna. Cipla will have to submit safety data of the first 100 beneficiaries to the drug regulator before the Moderna vaccine is allowed to be used in the government’s immunisation drive.