India Grants Emergency Approval to Astra-Oxford Covid-19 Vaccine

A vaccine delivery testing process in Delhi, India, on Jan. 2. Photographer: T. Narayan/Bloomberg

By Chris Kay and Ragini Saxena
BLOOMBERG

India has followed the U.K. and granted emergency approval for the coronavirus vaccine developed by AstraZeneca Plc and the University of Oxford, the first step in its plan to inoculate citizens in the country that’s home to the world’s second-largest Covid-19 outbreak.

Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javdekar said the AstraZeneca shot being produced locally by the Serum Institute of India Ltd. — the world’s largest vaccine maker by volume — was approved Friday.

“India is possibly the only country where four vaccine candidates are ready.” Javdekar said at the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s briefing on Saturday in New Delhi. “Yesterday one vaccine has been approved for emergency use, Serum’s Covishield.”

The Drugs Controller General of India has yet to formally announce the approval. Serum has an agreement with AstraZeneca to roll out at least one billion doses and has already made millions of shots. The move came just days after the U.K. regulator gave clearance to the vaccine, which is to roll out to Britain’s most vulnerable groups from Monday.

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