WHO gives emergency approval to Sinopharm, first Chinese Covid-19 vaccine

Geneva - An emergency listing is a signal to national regulators on a product's safety and efficacy.

The World Health Organization approved a Covid-19 vaccine from China's state-owned drugmaker Sinopharm for emergency use on Friday, a boost to Beijing's push for a big role in inoculating the world.

The vaccine, one of two main Chinese coronavirus vaccines that collectively have already been given to hundreds of millions of people in China and elsewhere, is the first developed by a non-Western country to win WHO backing. It is also the first time the WHO has given emergency use approval to a Chinese vaccine for any infectious disease.

A WHO emergency listing is a signal to national regulators that a product is safe and effective. It also allows it to be included in COVAX, a global programme to provide vaccines mainly for poor countries, which has hit supply problems.

"This expands the list of COVID-19 vaccines that COVAX can buy, and gives countries confidence to expedite their own regulatory approval, and to import and administer a vaccine," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a briefing.

The WHO had already given emergency approval to COVID-19 vaccines developed by Pfizer-BioNTech, AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson and, last week, Moderna.

The decision to approve Sinopharm's vaccine was taken by WHO's technical advisory group, which began meeting on April 26 to review the latest clinical data as well as Sinopharm's manufacturing practices.