Nepal becomes third country to give emergency nod to Indian vaccine COVAXIN

KATHMANDU: Nepal on Friday gave emergency authorisation to India's COVID-19 vaccine COVAXIN, becoming only the third country to approve the shot, developed by Bharat Biotech and a state research institute.

COVAXIN was shown to be 81% effective in an interim analysis of late-stage trial data on some 26,000 people in India. The vaccine was approved for emergency use in India in January and Zimbabwe cleared it early this month. "Conditional permission has been granted for emergency use authorisation," Nepal's Department of Drug Administration said in a statement.