Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin, India’s locally made vaccine against coronavirus, is yet to receive formal approval from the World Health Organisation (WHO).
On Friday, an official of the health body said, “even if it takes another week or two,” the process of vaccine evaluation and recommendation takes a longer time to ensure that the world receives the correct advice.
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The executive director of WHO Health Emergencies Programme said that the body wants all countries to recognise Emergency Use Listing (EUL) vaccines, “but it is also very important that WHO, when it makes a recommendation like that, is making that globally.”
The WHO official’s reply was in response to a question as to when there will be a definitive answer to Covaxin EUL, noted a PTI report.
WHO earlier this week said that it was not willing to “cut corners'' for including Covaxin in EUL for COVID-19 vaccination. The body also said that it is awaiting additional information from Bharat Biotech, which submits data to WHO on a rolling basis.
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In a series of tweets, WHO said, “We are aware many people are waiting for WHO’s recommendation for Covaxin to be included in the #COVID19 Emergency Use Listing, but we cannot cut corners - before recommending a product for emergency use, we must evaluate it thoroughly to make sure it is safe and effective.”
For Covaxin to be accepted as a safe and effective vaccine, WHO’s emergency use authorisation is very important.