Top Headlines: Pfizer Covid vax's 'India price', Twitter India seeks a week

US pharmaceutical major Pfizer may price its mRNA-based Covid-19 vaccine, co-developed by BioNTech, below $10 (about Rs 730) a dose in India. Twitter said it was making every effort to comply with the new guidelines and will provide the details of its Chief Compliance Officer within a week. Business Standard brings top headlines on Thursday.

Pfizer's Covid-19 vaccine may cost less than $10 a dose in India

US pharmaceutical major Pfizer may price its mRNA-based Covid-19 vaccine, co-developed by BioNTech, below $10 (about Rs 730) a dose in India, sources close to the development indicated.

This could be the lowest price of the vaccine globally, and almost half the price in developed markets like the US, UK, and EU. “It is a single-digit price per dose,” a source said. “This is a not-for-profit price for the government’s immunisation programme.”

 
Pfizer is now in discussions with the Indian government for supplying the vaccine. Read More

Covaxin Phase-3 efficacy analysis to be made public by July: Bharat Biotech

Covaxin manufacturer Bharat Biotech said that the detailed analysis of the phase-3 clinical trial data of its Covid-19 vaccine will be made public by July.
The company is also doing phase-4 trials for the real-world effectiveness of vaccines, reports said.

In a series of tweets, Raches Ella, project lead, Covid19 vaccines at Bharat Biotech said that the last volunteer of their phase-3 clinical trial (sample size 25,800) was vaccinated in mid-March. Read More

 

Twitter asks govt for one more week to comply with new IT guidelines

Four days after the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology gave Twitter "one last notice" to comply with the newly notified Information Technology Rules, 2021, Twitter said it was making every effort to comply with the new guidelines and will provide the details of its Chief Compliance Officer within a week.

“We understand the importance of these regulations and have endeavored in good faith to comply with the Guidelines, including with respect to hiring personnel in India,” the US-headquartered firm has said in its reply. Read More

Amazon to Reliance Retail's Ajio, retailers roll out goodies for shoppers

It’s discount time. With non-essential retail now allowed to operate in the key metros, shoppers can expect massive discounts on everything from iPhones to track pants because the mid-year sales have been advanced by a month.
Amazon, Myntra and Reliance Retail’s Ajio have already begun to roll out their offers from this week.

Fashion and apparel e-tailer Myntra is organising a mid-year sale between June 12 and 16 with 40-70 per cent discounts. Additional discounts and cashback offers with lenders have been chalked out to sweeten the deals further. Read More

 

10-year bond is no longer the rate signal for the economy, say experts

As the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) continues hoarding the benchmark 10-year bond, the security's shortage in the market is giving rise to some unique challenges.

 
It is not the most-traded paper anymore, but more importantly, say bond dealers, the 10-year bond is no longer the rate signal for the economy.
 

Most of the 10-year security is now with the RBI, and a segment of the bond market says the central bank must increase the liquidity of this segment. That can happen if the RBI issues more of these papers. Read More

 

US to buy 500 mn Pfizer jabs, share with lower-income countries: Report

The US will buy 500 million more doses of the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine to share through the global Covax alliance for donation to 92 lower income countries and the African Union over the next year, a person familiar with the matter said Wednesday.

President Joe Biden was set to make the announcement Thursday in a speech before the start of Group of Seven summit. Read More