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(Adds AstraZeneca's statement)
GENEVA, Feb 15 (Reuters) - The World Health Organization
(WHO) on Monday listed AstraZeneca and Oxford
University's COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use, widening access
to the relatively inexpensive shot in the developing world.
"We now have all the pieces in place for the rapid
distribution of vaccines. But we still need to scale up
production," Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General,
told a news briefing.
"We continue to call for COVID19 vaccine developers to
submit their dossiers to WHO for review at the same time as they
submit them to regulators in high-income countries," he said.
A WHO statement said it had approved the vaccine as produced
by AstraZeneca-SKBio (Republic of Korea) and the Serum Institute
of India.
"In the first half of 2021, it is hoped that more than 300
million doses of the vaccine will be made available to 145
countries through COVAX, pending supply and operational
challenges", the British drugmaker said in a separate statement
announcing the approval.
The listing by the UN health agency comes days after a WHO
panel provided interim recommendations on the vaccine, saying
two doses with an interval of around 8 to 12 weeks should be
given to all adults, and can be used in countries with the South
African variant of the coronavirus as well.
The WHO's review found that the Astrazeneca vaccine met the
"must-have" criteria for safety, and its efficacy benefits
outweighed its risks.
COVAX SHARING PROGRAMME
The AstraZeneca/Oxford shot has been hailed because it is
cheaper and easier to distribute than some rivals, including
Pfizer/BioNTech's , which was listed for
emergency use by the WHO late in December.
Nearly 109 million people have been reported to be infected
by the novel coronavirus globally and more than 2.5 million have
died, according to a Reuters tally. Infections
have been reported in more than 210 countries and territories
since the first cases were identified in China in December 2019.
AstraZeneca's vaccine makes up the lion's share of doses in
the COVAX coronavirus vaccine sharing initiative, with more than
330 million doses of the shot due to begin being rolled out to
poorer countries from the end of February.
The WHO established its emergency use listing (EUL) process
to help poorer countries without their own regulatory resources
quickly approve medicines new diseases like COVID-19, which
otherwise could lead to delays.
The COVAX Facility, which is co-led by GAVI, the World
Health Organization, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness
Innovations and the U.N. Children’s Fund, has said doses would
cover an average of 3.3% of total populations of 145
participating countries.
(Reporting by John Revill, John Miller, Michael Shields in
Zurich, Kate Kelland in London, Additional reporting by
Nandakumar D, Editing by William Maclean)
