TOKYO (March 5): Takeda Pharmaceutical said it had asked regulators to approve use of Moderna's Covid-19 vaccine on Friday, which would add a third option to Japan's vaccination programme.
Japan began inoculations last month using Pfizer's vaccine, which was the first to be approved for domestic use but is imported from European factories and is in short supply.
Takeda, which is handling the Japanese approval process and imports of about 50 million Moderna doses, had earlier said approval could be given in May.
"Takeda commits to delivering Moderna's Covid-19 vaccine candidate in Japan as soon as possible," Masayuki Imagawa, the head of its Japan vaccines business unit, said in a statement.