Pharmaceutical giant Cipla got DGCI's nod to import Moderna's Covid vaccine for restricted emergency use in India. With this, it became the fourth vaccine approved by the DCGI. The Cipla, in its application to the DCGA (Drugs Controller General of India) had referred to the government's decision to exempt foreign vaccines from clinical trials if it is cleared for emergency use in countries like the US and if the safety assessment data of the first 100 beneficiaries is submitted before mass rollout.
Earlier this month, the DCGI took a big decision in view of the shortage of COVID-19 vaccine in India. In a notice issued under this, it was said on behalf of DCGI that such a vaccine, which has been approved by the US FDA or the World Health Organization for use in emergency services, will be exempted from trials in India. According to the data, so far 120 million people in America have been given Pfizer or Moderna shot so far with no major safety issue identified. Let us tell you that Moderna's vaccine that has fragments of the genetic material known as messenger RNA. The results of clinical trials conducted regarding this vaccine show that this vaccine is more than 90 percent effective against cases with symptoms of coronavirus infection.
India has been witnessing a gradual decrease in daily coronavirus cases. According to the latest data from the Union Health Ministry, India reported 37,566 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours. It takes the cumulative count of the cases to 3,03,16,897. With 907 deaths in the last 24 hours, the death toll has increased to 3,97,637.
