COVID vaccine: WHO approves China’s Sinopharm for emergency use

World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, announced Friday that the body had authorized the emergency use of a COVID-19 vaccine made by China’s Sinopharm. 

“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,” 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.”

The decision, made by a WHO technical advisory team, means the Sinopharm vaccine could eventually be included into the UN-backed COVAX initiative aimed at guaranteeing access to vaccinations in poorer countries in the coming weeks or months. The jab would then be distributed via UNICEF and the WHO’s regional office in the Americas.

To date, Sinopharm has made very little data public, only publishing what it says are efficacy numbers for its two vaccine shots — one developed by the Beijing Institute of Biological Products and the other by the Wuhan Institute of Biological Products.

The Sinopharm jab is the first Chinese vaccine to gain emergency use approval.

this is a breaking news story and will be updated…

Article source: https://www.dw.com/en/covid-vaccine-who-approves-china-s-sinopharm-for-emergency-use/a-57418054?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf