The World Health Organization (WHO) gave emergency use authorization on Friday to a COVID-19 vaccine manufactured by China’s Sinopharm, potentially paving the way for millions of doses to reach needy countries through a UN-backed program rolling out coronavirus vaccines.
The decision by a WHO technical advisory group, a first for a Chinese vaccine, opens the possibility that Sinopharm’s offering could be included in the UN-backed COVAX program in coming weeks or months and distributed through UN children’s agency UNICEF and WHOs Americas regional office.
Aside from efficacy numbers the Chinese manufacturer has released very little public data about its two vaccines one developed by its Beijing Institute of Biological Products and the other by the Wuhan Institute of Biological Product.
The Beijing shot is one of the WHO advisory group considered for the emergency use listing. “This afternoon WHO gave emergency use listing to signing off on Beijing’s COVID-19 vaccine making it the sixth vaccine to receive WHO validation for safety efficacy and quality,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhahom Ghebreysus said.
The Sinopharm vaccine will join ones made by Pfizer BioNTech Johnson Johnson Moderna AstraZeneca and a version of the AstraZeneca vaccine made by the Serum Institute of India in receiving the coveted authorization from the UN health agency.
Surjitt Sahani
