India’s Bharat Biotech applies for vaccine emergency use authorization in Philippines- FDA

Moscow, Jan 21 (Sputnik) Indian biotechnology company Bharat Biotech has applied for emergency use authorization for its COVID-19 vaccine in the Philippines, the Manila-based Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said on Thursday.
“They submitted an application this morning and pre-evaluation is going on,” FDA Director General Eric Domingo told the ABS-CBN broadcaster.
Covaxin is currently in a phase 3 clinical trial in India, which involves some 26,000 volunteers. The Indian drug regulator greenlighted the emergency use of the vaccine in early January.
Last week, the Philippine government along with the country’s local government units signed an agreement with the UK-Swedish pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca to secure 17 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine. In November, the Philippines government purchased the first batch of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, consisting of 2.6 million doses.
The FDA has also approved the use of the Pfizer and BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. Earlier in January, the Philippines National Task Force said that the country was planning to acquire 148 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccines, including Russia’s Sputnik V jab. On January 9, the FDA said that it had received a license request for the emergency use of the Sputnik V vaccine.