As India permits private sales, prices for J&J and Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccines will be watched closely. While demand is set to spike with age criteria for those eligible to receive the shots expanded, local manufacturers Serum Institute and Bharat Biotech are ramping up capacities with the government’s help.

The number of novel products launched in their first markets in 2020 hit record heights in spite of – and in part buoyed by – the pandemic, with an exceptional year for infectious diseases therapeutics and vaccines.

In an unusual move prompted by an enormous second wave of infections, India is accelerating approvals for COVID-19 vaccines granted emergency use authorizations by other selected regulators or on the WHO’s emergency use list without a local bridging study. While this seems a prelude to permitting private sales, where will the supplies come from?

In an unusual move prompted by an enormous second wave of infections, India is accelerating approvals for COVID-19 vaccines granted emergency use authorizations by other selected regulators or on the WHO’s emergency use list without a local bridging study. While this seems a prelude to permitting private sales, where will the supplies come from?