The WHO has added a ninth vaccine to the globally-approved basket, by issuing an Emergency Use Itemizing to Covovax from American biotech firm Novavax, however produced underneath licence by India’s Serum Institute.
The vaccine can now be equipped to the WHO-supported COVAX facility that provides vaccines to low- and middle-income nations. The event comes at a time when gross inequity in vaccine distribution is being witnessed internationally.
Considerably, the 2 firms had mentioned earlier this 12 months that the EUL submitting to the WHO could be primarily based on Serum Institute’s submission to the Indian regulator, the Drug Controller Basic of India. “CovovaxTM was assessed underneath the WHO EUL process primarily based on the evaluation of information on high quality, security and efficacy, a danger administration plan, programmatic suitability, and manufacturing website inspections carried out by the DCGI,” the WHO mentioned.