Mumbai: Tata Medical & Diagnostics, a newly formed subsidiary of Tata Sons that was set up in June last year in the midst of the pandemic is keen to tap the country’s Covid-19-led health requirements has started holding discussions with US company Moderna for a partnership to launch its Covid-19 vaccine in India. Foreign companies however, need to conduct phase-3 trials with Indian volunteers before launching their products.
Tata is mulling over a team up with the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR), the government’s key R&D organisation, to carry out clinical trials of Moderna’s vaccine candidate in India, people in the know of things said.
Moderna which received funding in 2020 is part of the COVAX facility of the World Health Organization, to develop its mRNA vaccine against the Covid-19 virus. It aims to distribute 2 billion Covid-19 vaccine doses in low-and middle-income countries including India by the end of 2021.
Moderna, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Tata Sons did not respond to emailed queries from ET.
The US company’s vaccine has been approved for use in countries including the US, Canada and the UK. Moderna uses the same mRNA technology as US drug maker Pfizer, although it requires a storage temperature of -25 degrees Celsius compared with -70 degrees C for the Pfizer product.
Private companies are waiting for directions from the government to involve in the nation’s vaccination programme, one of the largest globally. Companies in the country with international tie-ups for testing and supplying Covid-19 vaccines include Serum Institute of India for the vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca; Dr Reddy’s Laboratories for Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine, and Biological E for Johnson & Johnson’s candidate.
Domestic companies working to develop or manufacture vaccine formulations include Bharat Biotech, Zydus Cadila and Hetero Biopharma.
