WHO Approves Emergency Use Of China’s Sinopharm Vaccine

WHO Approves Emergency Use Of China’s Sinopharm Vaccine.

The World Health Organisation has granted authorisation for emergency use of 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 programme.

WHO Executive Director Michael J. Ryan: “We are concerned about variants. We need to do genomic monitoring around the world but infrastructures in many countries do not allow it. The virus is changing over time and new ones emerge variants, adapting human behavior is one way to curb them, along with vaccines, says Ryan.

“What is causing these spikes in infections is the overcrowding, the lack of social distance, not wearing masks or not washing hands. There are countries with such a high level of infection that their hospital system cannot respond, as in India. And it could happen in any other country, ” he added.

The decision by a WHO technical advisory group opens the possibility that the Sinopharm vaccine could be included in the UN-backed Covax programme in coming weeks or months and distributed through Unicef and the WHO’s regional office in the Americas.

Sinopharm has released little data publicly, aside from efficacy numbers for its two jabs – one developed by the Beijing Institute of Biological Products and the other by the Wuhan Institute of Biological Products.

The Beijing jab is one that was considered by the WHO for the emergency use listing.

“This afternoon, WHO gave emergency use listing to sign off on Beijing’s Covid-19 vaccine, making it the sixth vaccine to receive WHO validation for safety, efficacy and quality,” director-general Tedros Adhahom Ghebreysus said.

“This expands the list of vaccines that Covax can buy and gives countries confidence to expedite their own regulatory approval and to import and administer a vaccine.”

A separate group advising the UN agency on vaccines said it was “very confident” the Sinopharm vaccine protects people aged 18-59.

But the group said it had a “low level of confidence” in efficacy in people aged 60 and over, and “very low confidence” in the available data about serious side effects in that age group.

Source: The FT