Sri Lanka ready to consider single-shot vaccine

• Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine approved in US
• NMRA yet to receive application

By Easwaran Rutnam   

Sri Lanka is ready to consider a single-shot vaccine which has been given approval in the US.   
US regulators have formally approved the single-shot Johnson & Johnson’s coronavirus vaccine.   

Health Ministry sources told Daily Mirror that if the vaccine is given approval by the local regulator it will be considered.   The vaccine is set to be cost-effective and can be stored in a refrigerator instead of a freezer.   
However, so far the National Medicines Regulatory Authority (NMRA) has not received an application seeking approval for the single-shot Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine.   

“As of Friday we have not received an application seeking approval for the use of the single-shot Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine,” Dr. Kamal Jayasinghe, the Chief Executive Officer of the NMRA told Daily Mirror.   
He said that as of now the NMRA has received applications seeking approval for the use of India’s indigenous COVID-19 vaccine by Bharat Biotech, Sputnik 5 vaccine from Russia and Sinopharm vaccine from China.   The NMRA has already given approval for the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine in Sri Lanka.   Dr. Kamal Jayasinghe said that while there had been some discussions with Pfizer with regards to the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.   However, he said the NMRA has not yet received an application  from Pfizer.