The World Health Organization has granted emergency authorisation to AstraZeneca’s covid-19 vaccine developed in collaboration with Oxford University. The development allows the United Nations agency’s partners who have collaborated with the vaccine makers to ship millions of doses globally. The move holds special significance for low and middle income countries who depend upon the organisation and do not have their own healthcare system.
“We now have all the pieces in place for the rapid distribution of vaccines. But we still need to scale up production,” WHO director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, told a news briefing.
“We continue to call for COVID-19 vaccine developers to submit their dossiers to WHO for review at the same time as they submit them to regulators in high-income countries.”
The announcement follows WHO panel’s recommendations on the vaccine last week. Adults should receive two doses with an interval of around 8-12 weeks, it has said.
The vaccine was reviewed on 8 February by WHO’s Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization (SAGE). The panel makes recommendations for vaccines’ use in populations and different age group. It had recommended the vaccine for all age groups 18 and above.
AstraZeneca vaccine has proven to be effective against the South African variant of the novel coronavirus as well. The WHO’s review team found that AstraZeneca passed the must have criteria that is essential to be considered before swearing by the efficacy of the vaccine. It also added that the efficacy benefits outweighed its risks.
AstraZeneca’s vaccine has many benefits over Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine that has already received regulatory nod from the organization. Not only it is cheaper, but it also accessible to countries with less number of resources as it does not demand particular conditions for storage.
Globally, 109 million people have been reported to be infected by the novel coronavirus, while more than 2.5 million have succumbed, according to a Reuters tally.
