Bharat Biotech's corona vaccine Covaccine may get emergency use approval from the World Health Organization (WHO) later this month. WHO Chief Scientist Dr. Soumya Swaminathan said on Sunday that a meeting of the Technical Advisory Group of WHO will be held on 26 October to consider the emergency use (EUL) of Kovaxin, the Kovid-19 vaccine of Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech.
Giving information about this on Twitter, Swaminathan also said that WHO is working with Bharat Biotech for this. We aim to expand access to a broad portfolio of vaccines approved for emergency use and everywhere. Earlier in the month, the WHO tweeted that the vaccine was providing data to the WHO on an ongoing basis, and on 27 September provided additional information on its request. Experts are currently reviewing this information and if it helps. If the questions are answered, the WHO assessment will be finalized next week.
The vaccine was developed by Bharat Biotech in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and the National Institute of Virology (NIV).
According to the manufacturers, Covaccin was found to be 77.8 percent effective in Phase-3 clinical trials. India is using three vaccines in the vaccination campaign against corona infection. One of them is Covishield of Serum Institute of India and the other is Covaxin of Bharat Biotech. Apart from this, the Russian vaccine Sputnik V is the third vaccine, which has received emergency use approval from the Drug Controller General of India (DGCI) for emergency use.
Vaccination started in the country on 16 January. Health workers and frontline workers were first vaccinated. The second phase of the vaccination campaign started on 1 March 2021. During this time vaccination of people above 60 years and above 45 years with the serious disease started. On April 1, 2021, it was further relaxed for all people above 45 years of age. The third phase started on May 1, 2021. All people above 18 years of age are approved for vaccination.