(Adds detail, background)
GENEVA, Dec 11 (Reuters) - The World Health Organization
expects to make decisions on whether to give emergency use
approval to COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer, Moderna and
AstraZeneca in coming weeks, its chief scientist said on Friday.
Soumya Swaminathan said the global health body could decide
on Pfizer's vaccine candidate in the next "couple of weeks", and
later said it could also review Moderna's and AstraZeneca's in a
few weeks.
WHO approval could allow a vaccine to be deployed in some
countries where national medical regulators have not yet been
able to evaluate it. Swaminathan said at least 10 companies had
expressed an interest or submitted a request for emergency
approval for vaccine candidates.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said nearly
a billion doses of vaccines had been secured for the COVAX
programme to provide shots for poor- and middle-income
countries, with 189 countries participating.
But several WHO officials noted that it would still take
time to manufacture enough doses of vaccines to meet demand.
Swaminathan said the supply was likely to be limited for the
first half of 2021.
(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay, Emma Farge and Peter Graff
Writing by Peter Graff; Editing by Catherine Evans and Andrew
Heavens)
Astrazeneca (AZN)
