The World Health Organization on Monday approved the Oxford-AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine for emergency use, paving way for its distribu...
The World Health Organization on Monday approved the Oxford-AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine for emergency use, paving way for its distribution in developing countries through the COVAX programme.
The WHO-backed COVAX seeks to ensure equitable access to vaccines in the world. Vaccines distributed through the programme are expected to cover 3.3% of population of 145 countries participating in the programme.
The global health agency cleared the vaccines manufactured by the Serum Institute of India and South Korean company SK Biopharmaceuticals.
Dr Mariangela Simao, WHO assistant-director general for access to medicines and health products, said that the move will allow countries with no access to vaccines so far to finally start inoculating health workers and other high-risk groups.
“But we must keep up the pressure to meet the needs of priority populations everywhere and facilitate global access,” Simao said. “To do that, we need two things – a scale-up of manufacturing capacity, and developers’ early submission of their vaccines for WHO review.”
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus also spoke about the need to speed up the vaccine manufacturing process. “We continue to call for Covid-19 vaccine developers to submit their dossiers to WHO for review at the same time as they submit them to regulators in high-income countries,” he said,...
