On Tuesday, June 1, the World Health Organization (WHO) has approved China's Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use, BBC News reported. The United Nation's health agency said that CoronaVac had prevented symptomatic disease in 51% of those vaccinated people, and 100% prevented severe symptoms and hospitalization.
However, WHO experts said that there is still some lacking data. SinoVac is the second Chinese vaccine to receive emergency approval from the WHO after Sinopharm received theirs last month.
The emergency approval means that CoronaVac could be used in the COVAX program that ensures countries have fair access to vaccines.
An employee works on the production line of CoronaVac, Sinovac Biotech's vaccine against COVID-19, at Butantan biomedical production center on April 23, 2021, in Sao Paulo, Brazil. While Butantan Institute works on developing its own vaccines, continues to produce the Chinese CoronoVac developed in partnership with the Chinese laboratory Sinovac Biotech. (Photo by Alexandre Schneider/Getty Images)
Sixth COVID-19 Vaccine by WHO
SinoVac's CoronaVac is the sixth COVID-19 vaccine approved by the WHO for use as an emergency in preventing COVID-19, according to Somag News. Other vaccines that received their emergency authorization use are those from Frizer-BioNTech, Oxford/AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, Moderna, and Sinopharm.
With WHO's approval, Brazil may have more CoronaVac from the COVAX facility aside from the Pfizer-BioNTech ad AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines sent to them by the consortium.
WHO experts inspected CoronaVac's production sites and evaluated the vaccine's quality, safety, and effectiveness. WHO Deputy Director-General for Access to Health Products Mariângela Simão said that it is important for the world to have several COVID-19 vaccines to deal with the huge inequality of access.
The analysis showed that CoronaVac is effective in preventing symptomatic cases of COVID-19 in 51% of those vaccinated and showed that 100% of the volunteers avoided the severe form and hospitalization brought by the infection.
WHO recommended CoronaVac in adults aged 18 and above, with the application of two doses at an interval of two to four weeks. The health agency also said that CoronaVac's ease of storage gives it an advantage for its use in places with few resources.
ALSO READ: Chinese Vaccines "Don't Have Very High Protection Rates": China CDC Official
WHO's COVID-19 Vaccine Emergency Use Listing
According to the news release of WHO, the emergency use listing (EUL) procedure assesses and evaluates the suitability of novel health products in times of public health emergencies.
It aims to produce medicines and vaccines, as well as diagnostics available as soon as possible to address the emergency but also adhering to strict criteria of safety, quality, and efficacy.
EUL involves a rigorous assessment of late phase II and phase III clinical trial data and the data for the medicine's safety, efficacy, quality. They also assess the risk management plan focused on the needs of low and middle-income countries.
The data will be reviewed by independent experts and the WHO that will put evidence into consideration in the plans for monitoring its use and plans for future studies.
More so, vaccine developers must commit to continuously generate data to receive full licensure and prequalification from the WHO. The prequalification process involves assessing additional clinical data from vaccine trials and the deployment of vaccines to make sure it receives the necessary standards for broader availability.
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