The World Health Organisation’s (WHO) technical advisory group on Tuesday (October 26) again sought “additional clarifications” from Bharat Biotech for its COVID-19 vaccine Covaxin to conduct a final ‘risk-benefit assessment’ for Emergency Use Listing of the vaccine.
As per the WHO the technical advisory group will now meet on November 3 for a final assessment, however, many in India see this as a deliberate ploy to ensure that Covaxin is delayed for as long as possible so it cannot compete with other pharma companies and also Chinese influence over WHO is also now being questioned.
“The @WHO independent Technical Advisory Group (TAG) met today & asked for additional clarifications from the manufacturer @BharatBiotech to conduct a final EUL risk-benefit assessment for global use of #Covaxin. It will reconvene for the final assessment on Wednesday, 3 November if data is received soon,” WHO chief scientist Dr Soumya Swaminathan said in a tweet.
Update: The @WHO independent TAG met today & asked for addnl clarifications from the manufacturer @BharatBiotech to conduct a final EUL risk-benefit assessment for global use of #Covaxin. It will reconvene for the final assessment on Wednesday, 3 November if data received soon
— Soumya Swaminathan (@doctorsoumya) October 26, 2021
Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech, which has developed Covaxin, had submitted EOI (Expression of Interest) to the WHO on April 19 for the vaccine’s Emergency Use Listing (EUL). In the meanwhile other vaccines developed by the likes of Pfizer, Johnson and Johnson, Moderna, and sinopharm was approved undet EUL.
The technical advisory group met on Tuesday to review data on Covaxin for the emergency use listing and said”The TAG met today (26 October 2021) and decided that additional clarifications from the manufacturer are needed to conduct a final EUL risk-benefit assessment for global use of the vaccine.
“The TAG expects to receive these clarifications from the manufacturer by the end of this week, and aims to reconvene for the final risk-benefit assessment on Wednesday, 3 November,” it added.
But already there is enough data wherein it has been proved that Covaxin has demonstrated 77.8 per cent effectiveness against symptomatic COVID-19 and 65.2 per cent protection against the new Delta variant.
However, WHO has said, “When the information provided addresses all questions raised, WHO and the Technical Advisory Group will complete the assessment and come to a final recommendation whether to grant Emergency Use Listing to the vaccine,”.
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