(Adds details of other vaccines under review, comments from
Moderna CEO)
GENEVA, April 26 (Reuters) - Moderna's COVID-19
vaccine will be reviewed on April 30 by technical experts for
possible WHO emergency-use listing, a World Health Organization
spokesman told Reuters.
"We are discussing the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine on
Friday...," WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier said in reply to a
query. A decision on the U.S. drugmaker's vaccine, now being
evaluated under the abridged procedure on the basis of prior
review by the European Medicines Agency, was expected in one to
four days after that, Lindmeier said.
So far COVID-19 vaccines made by Pfizer, AstraZeneca
and Johnson & Johnson have received WHO
approval, which is a signal to national regulatory authorities
on a product's safety and efficacy.
The WHO committee of technical experts were on Monday
reviewing the COVID-19 vaccine of Chinese drugmaker Sinopharm
and is due to review the Sinovac product at its next
meeting on May 3, according to the WHO.
Stephane Bancel, Moderna CEO, told an event last Friday that
it was on track to make up to 1 billion doses of its COVID-19
vaccine this year and 1.4 billion next year.
"We're in the final stretch to get an agreement with COVAX,"
Bancel said, referring to the vaccine-sharing facility run by
the GAVI Vaccine Alliance and WHO to bring doses to lower income
countries.
(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; editing by Emma Farge and Mark
Heinrich)
Astrazeneca (AZN)
