India-made Covaxin gets WHO approval for Emergency Use Listing (EUL)

Geneva [Switzerland]: The World Health Organisation (WHO), has granted approval for Emergency Use Listing (EUL) for Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech's COVID-19 vaccine, Covaxin.

Earlier, the WHO panel had sought additional clarifications from the manufacturer of Covaxin, in order to conduct a final EUL risk-benefit assessment for global use of the vaccine. The approval was done on the recommendation of the Technical Advisory Group (TAG) for Emergency Use Listing (TAG-EUL), an independent advisory panel that provides recommendations to WHO on whether a Covid19 vaccine can be listed for emergency use under the EUL procedure.

Covaxin has demonstrated 77.8 per cent effectiveness against symptomatic COVID-19 and 65.2 per cent protection against the new Delta variant. Bharat Biotech said that it concluded the final analysis of Covaxin efficacy from Phase 3 trials.

Bharat Biotech's Covaxin and AstraZeneca and Serum Institute's Covishield are the two widely used vaccines in India.

The WHO has so far approved Covid-19 vaccines of Pfizer-BioNTech, AstraZeneca-SK Bio/Serum Institute of India, Johnson 7 Johnson - Janssen, Moderna, and Sinopharm for emergency use.