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WHO to meet on Oct 26 to decide on emergency use of Covaxin

Experts of the World Health Organization will meet on October 26 to decide whether to grant emergency use listing to Bharat Biotech’s Covid-19 vaccine Covaxin, the UN health body announced on Sunday.

“The technical advisory group will meet on Oct 26th to consider EUL for #Covaxin. @WHO has been working closely with @BharatBiotech to complete the dossier. Our goal is to have a broad portfolio of vaccines approved for emergency use & to expand access to populations everywhere,” tweeted Dr Soumya Swaminathan, chief scientist, WHO.

On October 5, WHO announced through a series of tweets that emergency use approval for Covaxin was a week away.

The experts from WHO and a group of independent experts are going through the data, and are expected to carry out the risk-benefit assessment before arriving at a conclusion, the UN health body announced on the day the Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization (SAGE) meeting on Covaxin emergency use listing was scheduled.

“WHO & an independent group of experts are scheduled to meet next week to carry out the risk/benefit assessment and come to a final decision whether to grant Emergency Use Listing to Covaxin,” WHO tweeted on October 5.

The last set of technical documents that WHO asked the company was submitted on September 27.

“Covaxin manufacturer, Bharat Biotech, has been submitting data to WHO on a rolling basis & submitted additional info at WHO’s request on 27 September. WHO experts are currently reviewing this info & if it addresses all questions raised, WHO assessment will be finalized next week,” read one of the tweets from WHO.

On July 12, Bharat Biotech announced that it submitted documents to set in motion the emergency use listing proceedings to WHO.

“All documents required for emergency use listing (EUL) of Covaxin have been submitted to WHO as of 9th July. The review process has now commenced with the expectation that we will receive EUL from WHO at the earliest ,” Krishna Ella, chairman and managing director, Bharat Biotech, said in a statement after submitting the documents last month.

WHO began a rolling review of Covaxin on July 6, 2021.

Covaxin is one of the six vaccine approved by India’s drugs regulator for emergency use, and one of the two vaccines being administered under the national Covid-19 immunisation programme. The other vaccine that is largely being given under the programme is the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, which is locally manufactured by Serum Institute of India under the brand name Covishield. Hindustan Times

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