WHO to announce approval for Covaxin's emergency use listing in next 24 hours

Amid the continued anticipation of WHO’s emergency use approval for India’s indigenous vaccine made by Bharat Biotech - Covaxin, a recent development suggests that a technical advisory group of the WHO scientists had been reviewing data produced by the vaccine manufacturers on Tuesday, October 26 and are expected to make a call soon on the listing of India’s COVID-19 vaccine. 

A WHO spokesperson informed the press, that if  the team was satisfied with the assessment, the global health organisation will make the recommendations on the emergency use listing of Covaxin, within the next 24 hours. "If the committee is satisfied, we would expect a recommendation within the next 24 hours or so," a WHO spokesperson said as reportd by PTI .

WHO to announce recommendations on Covaxin's emergency use 

Earlier, WHO's head scientist Soumya Swaminathan informed on October 17 informed that its technical advisory panel will meet on October 26 to review the emergency use listing for Bharat Biotech's COVID-19 vaccine Covaxin. This comes after India’s indigenous vaccine was expected to receive the final decision from the global health body on the emergency use listing by October first week.

Explaining the continued delay in the emergency use listing of India’s indigenous vaccine Covaxin, WHO issued a clarification on Monday, October 18. The global health body said that it understands people’s anticipation of getting the Covaxin listed on WHO’s emergency use listing, WHO added that they are ‘well aware that people are waiting,’ but they cannot ‘cut corners’ before recommending the vaccine for emergency use. WHO asserted that the health body has to completely evaluate the product before approving it fit for global use. 

On April 19, Bharat Biotech, based in Hyderabad, submitted an EOI (Expression of Interest) to the WHO for the vaccine's Emergency Use Listing (EUL). Covaxin, which was developed by Bharat Biotech in partnership with the National Institute of Virology and the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), demonstrated a 78% efficacy rate in clinical testing. It was cleared for emergency use by the Indian government in January this year, but it has yet to be approved by the WHO. The six COVID-19 vaccines that have gained emergency use authorisation from the WHO are the Pfizer-BioNTech jab, and the two versions of AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccines — one being the AstraZeneca vaccine produced by SK Bio and the Serum Institute of India (SII), and the other - AstraZeneca EU, Janssen, Moderna, and Sinopharm vaccines.

With inputs from PTI

Image: PTI/ Shutterstock