The WHO group will meet on October 26 to discuss Covaxin’s emergency listing

The World Health Organization’s technical advisory group will meet on October 26 to discuss the Emergency Use Listing (EUL) of Covaxin, a vaccine developed by Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech that protects against COVID-19, the global health agency’s chief scientist announced on Sunday.

“On October 26th, the technical advisory group will meet to discuss EUL for #Covaxin. The @WHO has been collaborating with @BharatBiotech to complete the dossier. Our goal is to have a diverse portfolio of vaccines approved for emergency use and to provide access to people all over the world “Soumya Swaminathan, Chief Scientist at the World Health Organization, said in a tweet on Sunday.

The WHO stated earlier this month that Bharat Biotech has been submitting data to the WHO on a rolling basis and submitted additional information on September 27 at the WHO’s request. The WHO experts are currently reviewing this information and if it addresses all questions raised, the WHO assessment will be finalised next week.”

On April 19, Bharat Biotech submitted an EOI (Expression of Interest) for its vaccine. On July 6, the WHO stated that it began rolling out vaccine data.

Rolling data enables the WHO to begin its review as soon as new information is received, thereby speeding up the overall review process.

Submissions for pre-qualification or listing under the emergency use procedure are confidential, according to the WHO.

If a product submitted for evaluation is found to meet the criteria for listing, the WHO will widely publicise the results.

According to the WHO, the duration of the emergency use listing process is determined by the quality of the data submitted by the vaccine manufacturer and whether the data meets the WHO’s criteria.

Covaxin, developed in India by Bharat Biotech, is one of six vaccines that have received emergency use authorization from India’s Drug Regulator and is being used in the nationwide anti-COVID-19 inoculation programme alongside Covishield and Sputnik V.

Bharat Biotech recently stated that it has submitted all Covaxin data to the WHO for EUL and is awaiting feedback from the global health watchdog.

“We are diligently working with the WHO to obtain EUL at the earliest,” the company had said on Tuesday.

According to Johns Hopkins University, the coronavirus has claimed 4,897,386 lives along with 240,559,605 confirmed cases across the world so far.