J&J in talks with Indian govt to speed up delivery of its Covid-19 vaccine

Johnson & Johnson (J&J) said on Tuesday it was in talks with the Indian government to explore ways to speed up delivery of its single-shot Covid-19 vaccine in the country.

The Economic Times newspaper reported earlier on Tuesday that the company would no longer undertake local trials for its vaccine, after India's decision to scrap bridging clinical trials for vaccines approved by regulators in other nations.

J&J did not specify in its comment whether it has scrapped the trial.

The US-based company said in April it was seeking an approval to conduct a bridging clinical study of its Janssen Covid-19 vaccine candidate in India. read more

In late-May, however, the country scrapped local trials for "well-established" vaccines manufactured in other countries. read more

More than 41 million vaccine doses were administered across India in just the last one week, at a time when experts have said that widespread vaccination remains one of the best tools to avoid the kind of devastation the country saw during the pandemic's second wave.