* Says no S. Africa variant reported, no concerns with shot
* J&J interested in making its vaccine in India- govt
official
* Bharat Biotech may export local shot to Brazil, UAE this
week
* India orders 14.5 mln more doses of Astra, Bharat Biotech
shots
(Adds details, quotes)
By Krishna N. Das and Anuron Kumar Mitra
NEW DELHI, Feb 9 (Reuters) - India said on Tuesday it had no
concerns over the efficacy of the AstraZeneca (NASDAQ:AZN) AZN.L COVID-19
vaccine despite South Africa putting it on hold, and ordered 10
million more doses of the shot for its own huge immunisation
campaign.
South Africa delayed use of the vaccine after researchers
found it offered minimal protection against mild-to-moderate
COVID-19 disease caused by the country's dominant coronavirus
variant. India, with the highest number of infections after the
United States, has yet to detect the South African variant and
will continue to use the vaccine in an inoculation drive that
has covered 6.3 million front-line workers since Jan. 16.
"Our vaccination programme is robust and valid, and I assure
you that we are going ahead with it, not worried at the moment,"
Vinod Kumar Paul, a top Indian vaccine official, told a news
conference.
"We will intensify our surveillance and we will be watching
other developments in due course."
The Serum Institute of India (SII), the world's biggest
vaccine maker, has licenced the vaccine from AstraZeneca and
Oxford University and markets it as COVISHIELD for low-and
middle-income countries.
India has ordered 10 million more doses of COVISHIELD on top
of 11 million supplied earlier, an SII spokesman told Reuters on
Tuesday. SII has agreed to sell at least 100 million doses to
the government at a discounted price of 200 rupees ($2.74) each,
though the government says firm orders will be staggered based
on its needs, and also on vaccine shelf-life.
COVISHIELD is about 72% effective, based on late-stage
trials done abroad, India's drug regulator says.
The country is also using the COVAXIN shot developed at home
by Bharat Biotech with the state-run Indian Council of Medical
Research. Bharat Biotech has supplied 5.5 million doses to the
government and is selling 4.5 million more, a company
spokeswoman told Reuters.
The government wants to cover 300 million people by August,
reaching the elderly and those with existing conditions by
March.
India has reported 10.85 million infections and more than
155,000 deaths - though cases have fallen sharply since
September.
MAKE IN INDIA
Paul said Johnson & Johnson JNJ.N could manufacture its
shot in India. He also said many more vaccines, including
Russia's Sputnik V, Cadila Healthcare 's CADI.NS ZyCov-D and a
Novavax NVAX.O product, were in the queue.
"India is fortunate to have two great made-in-India
vaccines, and as many as six-seven vaccines in the pipeline and
perhaps many more," he said, days after Pfizer Inc PFE.N
pulled an application seeking emergency-use authorisation in the
country.
The U.S. company had declined to immediately do a small
local safety study for its shot and produce it in India, unlike
the other vaccine developers.
New Delhi, meanwhile, is aggressively pushing the SII and
Bharat Biotech vaccines abroad as part of a diplomatic campaign
to recoup ground lost to China. Bharat Biotech told Reuters it could export its vaccine to
Brazil and the United Arab Emirates this week, a major success
for the shot approved at home for emergency use without efficacy
data from a late-stage trial.
The company expects results from an ongoing trial involving
25,800 participants in India only by March, though the country's
drug regulator has called the vaccine safe and effective amid
criticism from doctors and health experts. A study on 26
participants has found COVAXIN effective against the UK strain
of the coronavirus. Bharat Biotech has also applied to conduct a Phase III trial
for COVAXIN in Brazil, which plans to import 8 million doses in
February and another 12 million in March. Bharat Biotech has also sought emergency use authorisation
in the Philippines.
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Coronavirus: knowns and unknowns https://reut.rs/2UHIgvz
FACTBOX-Latest on global spread of coronavirus
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FACTBOX-Worldwide coronavirus deaths exceed 2.3 mln
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