NITI Aayog member, Dr VK Paul, on Thursday said that the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine is likely to be produced in  Hyderabad’s Bio E very soon.

“We are in talks with Johnson & Johnson regarding their single-dose vaccine. Their vaccine is being produced outside. As per the plan, this vaccine will also be produced in Hyderabad’s Bio E,” Dr Paul said.

This comes after 

India’s drugs regulator, Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI), has given nod to Mumbai-based Cipla to import the COVID-19 vaccine developed by the US-based Moderna.

Moderna will be the fourth vaccine to be rolled out in India after AstraZeneca’s Covishield, Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin and Russia’s Sputnik V.

  Johnson and Johnson’s, which is a single-shot COVID-19 vaccine, is said to be effective against the Delta Variant of the coronavirus. Delta variant is the same muted form of the virus that led India into its second deadly wave of COVID-19.

“Johnson and Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine is effective against the highly contagious Delta variant, with an immune response lasting at least eight months,” the company said in a statement on Thursday.

Apart from that Indian pharmaceutical firm Zydus Cadila also sought the drug regulator’s nod for rolling out its COVID-19 vaccine for those of the age of 12 and above.

If approved, Zydus will be the world’s first DNA vaccine against coronavirus and the fifth to be available in India, after AstraZeneca’s Covishield, Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin, Russia’s Sputnik V and USA’s Moderna.  

Zydus vaccine has completed the third phase of the trial. In a first, Zydus Cadila tested its vaccine in the adolescent population in the 12-18 years age group. Around 1,000 subjects were involved in the test that was conducted at 50 centres in India, the company said in statement, as per media reports.