November 03, (THEWILL) – The World Health Organisation (WHO) on Wednesday granted approval for emergency use of the covaxin Covid-19 vaccine.
Found to have 78 percent efficacy after two doses spread over four weeks, the vaccine “is extremely suitable for low- and middle-income countries due to easy storage requirements,” the UN body said in a statement.
Covaxin, produced by India’s Bharat Biotech, is the first vaccine completely developed and manufactured in India to receive WHO approval.
Based on inactivated coronavirus antigens, it becomes the eighth vaccine against Covid-19 on the WHO’s list, including others from Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna, AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, Sinopharm, and Sinovac.
WHO emergency approval, which includes an assessment of clinical trial data, can speed up international recognition of vaccines.
It also allows their use by fellow UN agencies and the global Covax initiative, set up to immunise people in the world’s least-well-off countries.
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