WHO To Meet Today, Consider Emergency Use Listing for Covaxin

The World Health Organization (WHO) will meet on Tuesday, 26 October, to consider the question of granting emergency use approval to Bharat Biotech's COVID-19 vaccine Covaxin, reports said, quoting WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan.

"WHO has a system in which there is a technical committee which has approved it, while the other committee is meeting today. The approval for Covaxin will be given on the basis of today's meeting," Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said on Tuesday, according to news agency ANI.

The WHO had said in September that the process of assessing Bharat Biotech's vaccine is underway and a decision regarding its emergency use listing will be made in October.

The Hyderabad-based company applied for WHO approval on 19 April, by providing Expression of Interest (EoI).

In a document dated 29 September and titled 'Status of COVID-19 vaccines within WHO EUL/PQ evaluation process' the WHO stated that the decision date for the vaccine is October 2021.

The WHO had shared on Twitter that Bharat Biotech has been submitting data to WHO on a rolling basis, and the global health body’s experts have been reviewing the same.

Earlier in October, the global health body said that the Emergency Use Listing (EUL) process of WHO and the technical advisory group of independent experts is centred on determining if a manufactured vaccine is quality-assured, safe, and effective. The body had said it is waiting for one more piece of information from Bharat Biotech.

“We are aware that many people are waiting for WHO’s recommendation for Covaxin to be included in the #COVID19 Emergency Use Listing, but we cannot cut corners - before recommending a product for emergency use, we must evaluate it thoroughly to make sure it is safe and effective.”

The WHO has so far included only six COVID-19 vaccines in its EUL list that includes the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, manufactured as Covishield by the Serum Institute of India.