WHO Assessing Covid-19 Vaccines from Sinovac, Sinopharm

Jakarta: World Health Organization (WHO) continues to ask covid-19 vaccine manufacturers to provide the necessary data that will allow the United Nations (UN) agency to consider them for emergency use listings.
 
"I’m pleased that a WHO team is in China currently working with producers of the Sinovac and Sinopharm vaccines to assess compliance with international quality manufacturing practices ahead of potential emergency use listing by WHO," said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Gebreyesus during a press briefing on Monday.
 
According to the WHO chief, the team is separate from the WHO origins mission.
"We also look forward to Serum Institute of India submitting full data sets for rapid assessment so WHO can determine whether we can recommend their AstraZeneca vaccine for international use," he stated.
 
Last month, WHO listed the Comirnaty covid-19 mRNA vaccine for emergency use, making the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine the first to receive emergency validation from WHO since the outbreak began a year ago.
 
Regulatory experts convened by WHO from around the world and WHO’s own teams reviewed the data on the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine’s safety, efficacy and quality as part of a risk-versus-benefit analysis. 
 
The review found that the vaccine met the must-have criteria for safety and efficacy set out by WHO, and that the benefits of using the vaccine to address covid-19 offset potential risks.
 
(WAH)