Society

AstraZeneca applies for vaccine approval in Japan

Feb 05 (NHK) - British pharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca has applied for authorization to use its coronavirus vaccine in Japan.

AstraZeneca filed the application with the health ministry on Friday. It became the second company to do so. US drug maker Pfizer was the first.

The British firm plans to submit data on the clinical trials it is conducting in Japan by the end of March. The vaccine was jointly developed by Oxford University.

The ministry will compare AstraZeneca's data with data from overseas to determine how effective and safe the vaccine is.

AstraZeneca has signed a contract with the Japanese government to supply enough doses for 60 million people.

Once the ministry approves the vaccine, doses for more than 40 million people are expected to be produced in Japan.

In January, inoculations with the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine began in Britain and India.

Source: ANNnewsCH

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