Drugmaker AstraZeneca PLC said on Friday it had applied for approval in Japan of its COVID-19 vaccine, making it the second pharmaceutical firm to do so after Pfizer Inc. The Japanese government in December signed a contract to procure 120 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, enough for 60 million people. The company is requesting special approval for the vaccine and plans to submit further data to regulators in March, it said in a statement. The AstraZeneca element is a critical component in the government’s inoculation plan before the Tokyo Olympics scheduled for this summer: the doses will be made mostly in Japan, and don’t need to be kept refrigerated at […]