GENEVA: The World Health Organization issued an emergency use listing for the India-made Covaxin vaccine, in a move expected to increase the availability of COVID-19 jabs in poor countries.
The vaccine, manufactured by India’s Bharat Biotech has a 78-percent efficacy rate after two doses over a month, “is extremely suitable for low- and middle-income countries due to easy storage requirements,” the UN body said.
Covaxin is the first vaccine completely developed and manufactured in India to receive WHO approval. Unlike mRNA vaccines by Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna that have emerged as leading jabs against Covid-19, Covaxin uses the more traditional “inactivated” technology that has been used for decades in vaccines against diseases like polio, seasonal influenza and rabies.
The technology uses a dead version of a germ that causes a disease to boost the immune response. One of the main advantages of such vaccines is that they are more easily stored than mRNA jabs, which need to be kept at sub-zero temperatures. This makes them easier to distribute, especially in poor countries that may lack the needed facilities. Covaxin can be stored between 2-8 degrees Celsius (36-46 degrees Fahrenheit).
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India welcomed the move, with Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar tweeting that it “facilitates travel for many Indian citizens and contributes to vaccine equity.” The delay in WHO approval has been a cause of worry for many Indians particularly students who have had problems returning to their universities abroad.
Covaxin has become the eighth vaccine against Covid-19 on the WHO’s list. The 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 developed countries.
Glad to see one more vaccine, #Covaxin, being granted @WHO emergency use listing. The more products we have to fight #COVID19, the better, but we must keep up the pressure to deliver #VaccinEquity & prioritize access to vulnerable groups who are still waiting for their 1st dose. https://t.co/wCgtSSNvJ1
— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) November 3, 2021
India has administered 121.2 million shots of Covaxin, around 11 percent of the total. The vaccine, developed by Indian drug maker Bharat Biotech together with the Indian Council of Medical Research, was given “emergency approval” in India earlier this year without the completion of Phase 3 human trials.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi received the vaccine in March this year as India started rolling out its mammoth vaccination programme, which has now seen more than a billion shots given. Around a dozen countries recognise the two-dose vaccine, including Greece, Iran, Mexico, Nepal, Zimbabwe, and Australia.
India has also exported Covaxin to a number of countries including Iran, Myanmar and Zimbabwe. Brazil suspended a deal to import 20 million doses of Covaxin from India after corruption allegations. Owned by husband and wife, Krishan and Suchitra Ella, Bharat Biotech was set up in 1996 and has delivered over three billion vaccines for several diseases including Zika and Hepatitis B.
