India's Cipla Given Approval to Distribute Moderna's COVID-19 Vaccine Voice of America 30 Jun 2021, 07:35 GMT+10 Indian officials announced Tuesday that Indian pharmaceutical company Cipla has been approved to distribute its partner Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine, as the country seeks to ramp up its vaccination program to prevent a third wave of the virus. The authorization will now allow the Moderna vaccine to be imported into India. It will be the fourth COVID-19 vaccine given emergency approval for use in the country, after AstraZeneca and partner Serum Institute of India's Covishield, Bharat Biotech's Covaxin and Russian-developed Sputnik V. So far, India has administered about 330 million doses, more than the overall shots administered in the United States. But with a population of 1.36 billion, the vaccination rate is much lower than several other countries. India has the world's second-highest number of infections, with more than 30 million cases and almost 398,000 deaths.