The World Health Organization on Friday approved Chinese vaccine Sinopharm for emergency use in coronavirus patients. This is the first v...
The World Health Organization on Friday approved Chinese vaccine Sinopharm for emergency use in coronavirus patients.
This is the first vaccine developed by a non-Western country to get the global health body’s backing. The WHO had previously only approved the vaccines made by Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson and Moderna.
A WHO emergency listing is a signal to national regulators that a product is safe and effective. It also allows the vaccine to be included in COVAX, the World Health Organization’s global initiative to promote equitable vaccine distribution around the world by supplying them to poorer nations.
The Sinopharm vaccine has already been given to millions of people in China and elsewhere. It is one of the two vaccines Beijing is using in its inoculation programme, according to Reuters.
Its developer, Beijing Biological Products Institute, a unit of Sinopharm subsidiary China National Biotec Group, has said the vaccine was 79.34% effective in preventing people from developing Covid-19, based on interim data, according to Reuters. However, no detailed efficacy data of Sinopharm’s vaccine has been publicly released.
But the WHO on Friday said it had confirmed the “safety, efficacy and quality” of the vaccine, recommending it for adults, in a two-dose schedule with a spacing of three to four weeks.
It said the vaccine...
