Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin received World Health Organisation’s approval on 3 November for emergency use listing. The technical advisory team of WHO has now recommended the India-made vaccine for emergency use listing for 18 years and above.
Covaxin is India’s indigenously developed, completely ‘made in India’, vaccine by Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech and the Indian Council of Medical Research. Therefore, the recent approval marks a major victory for India’s journey in vaccination against Covid-19.
The World Health Organisation’s panel had last week sought additional clarifications from Bharat Biotech while reviewing the Covaxin. So far, Covaxin has demonstrated 77.8 per cent effectiveness against symptomatic COVID-19 and 65.2 per cent protection against the new Delta variant of coronavirus disease.
Bharat Biotech stated that it concluded the final analysis of Covaxin efficacy from Phase 3 trials.
So far, WHO has approved Covid-19 vaccines of Pfizer-BioNTech, AstraZeneca-SK Bio/Serum Institute of India, Johnson 7 Johnson – Janssen, Moderna, and Sinopharm for emergency use.
What does this approval mean for India?
Due to WHO’s approval, the emergency use listing of Covaxin will open the door of many countries for Indians who are vaccinated with this vaccine.
Infact, many countries like Guyana, Iran, Mauritius, Mexico, Nepal, Paraguay, the Philipines, Zimbabwe, Australia, Oman, Sri Lanka, Estonia, Greece have already approved Covaxin while many others were waiting for WHO’s decision before extending approvals.
In addition to this, the approval of Covaxin by WHO brings due recognition for Indian scientists as this is the first ‘Made in India’ Covid-19 vaccine.
In a statement shared on Twitter, the World Health organisation mentioned that the Covaxin vaccine was also reviewed by WHO’s Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization (SAGE), and therefore it has recommended the use of this vaccine in two doses, with a dosing interval of four weeks, in all age groups 18 and above.
Covaxin was found to have 78% efficacy against COVID19 of any severity, 14 or more days after the second dose. Moreover, the WHO statement also remarked that the Covaxin is extremely suitable for low- and middle-income countries due to easy storage requirements.
Talking about this big move, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandviya expresses his gratitude towards PM Modi and also congratulated scientists at Bharat Biotech, ICMR & all others associated with the development of Covaxin.
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