WHO says it `cannot cut corners` in approving India`s

Covaxin shot
 2021-10-19
BENGALURU: The World Health Organisation on Monday asked for further data from
India`s Bharat Biotech to consider the company`s request for an emergency-use
listing for its Covid-19 shot, saying the WHO could not `cut corners` in making a decision.

Bharat Biotech, which developed Covaxin with an Indian state research body, started
sharing data with the WHO from early July. The vaccine was given emergency-use
authorisation in India in January even before the completion of a late-stage trial, which
later found the shot to be 78pc efficacious.

Without a WHO nod, the two-dose Covaxin is unlikely to be accepted as a valid vaccine around
the world and would complicate travel plans for tens of millions of Indians who have taken it.

Covaxin accounts for 11pc of the 985.5 million total doses administered in India, and has also
been exported.

`We are aware that many people are waiting for WHO`s recommendation for Covaxin to be
included in the #COV ID19 Emergency Use Listing, but we cannot cut corners,` the WHO said
on Twitter.

`Before recommending a product for emergency use, we must evaluate it thoroughly to make
sure it is safe andeffective.` The WHO was expecting `one additional piece of information from
the company today`, it added, without specifying.

Bharat Biotech, which has struggled to meet production timelines for Covaxin, had no immediate
comment.

WHO Chief Scientist Soumya Swaminathan said on Sunday its technical advisory group would
meet on Oct 26 to consider the listing for Covaxin. She said the WHO`s goal was to `have a
broad portfolio of vaccines approved for emergency use & to expand access to populations
everywhere`.

India is the world`s biggest producer of vaccines, with a capacity to make more than 3 billion
Covid shots a year, mainly the AstraZeneca one.