No Nod For Covaxin Yet, WHO Seeks "Additional Clarifications": Report

Covaxin has demonstrated 77.8 per cent effectiveness against symptomatic COVID-19 and 65.2 per cent protection against the new Delta variant

The World Health Organisation's technical advisory group on Tuesday sought "additional clarifications" from Bharat Biotech for its COVID-19 vaccine Covaxin to conduct a final "risk-benefit assessment" for Emergency Use Listing of the vaccine.

Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech, which has developed Covaxin, had submitted EOI (Expression of Interest) to the WHO on April 19 for the vaccine's Emergency Use Listing (EUL).

The technical advisory group met on Tuesday to review data on Covaxin for the emergency use listing of India's indigenously-made vaccine.

"The TAG met today (26 October 2021) and decided that additional clarifications from the manufacturer are needed to conduct a final EUL risk-benefit assessment for global use of the vaccine," the WHO said in an email response to a question by PTI on the decision regarding the Emergency Use Listing of Covaxin.