The World Health Organization (WHO) on June 1 issued an emergency use listing for the COVID-19 vaccine developed by China’s Sinovac for people age 18 and over. This was the second such authorisation granted to a Chinese company.
The global health agency said data submitted to its experts showed that two doses of the Sinovac vaccine prevented people from getting symptoms of COVID-19 in about half of those who were administered the jab. However, WHO said there were few older adults enrolled in the research, so it could not estimate how effective the vaccine was in people over 60.
Sinovac’s vaccine, branded as ‘CoronaVac’, is already being used in China and to a limited extent in Azerbaijan, Brazil, Thailand, Indonesia and Turkey, among others.
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With this, eight COVID-19 vaccines have been granted emergency use authorisation by the WHO. A number of other vaccines are already being administered in many countries even as they wait for to be placed on WHO’s the list.
Here’s a list of other COVID-19 vaccines approved for emergency use by WHO so far:
Pfizer and BioNTech’s ‘BNT162b2’
It’s a nucleoside modified mNRA jab. It is being administered in the United States, Israel and the United Kingdom, among other countries.
AstraZeneca and Oxford University’s ‘AZD1222’
It uses the recombinant ChAdOx1 adenoviral vector encoding the spike protein antigen of SARS-CoV-2. It is being administered in the United Kingdom, Malaysia, South Korea, Mexico, the European Union, etc.
The same vaccine is registered separately by the Serum Institute of India (SII) as ‘Covishield’.
The ‘AZD1222’ also holds a separate WHO emergency use approval as registered under the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety of South Korea.
Johnson & Johnson-Janssen’s ‘Ad26.COV2.S’
This is a recombinant, replication in competent adenovirus type 26 (Ad26) vectored vaccine encoding the (SARS-CoV-2) spike protein. It has been deployed in the United States, United Kingdom, and Switzerland, and European nations, among others.
Moderna’s ‘mRNA-1273’
It is a mNRA-based vaccine encapsulated in a lipid nanoparticle (LNP). It is being administered in Canada, Denmark, Finland, Israel, Japan, Portugal, and Taiwan, among other countries.
Sinopharm-BBIBP’s SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine
It is an inactivated virus vaccine produced by the China National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm) and its Beijing Institute of Biological Products. It is mainly being used in China, Bahrain, Seychelles, and the United Arab Emirates, among some other countries.
Besides these, Sputnik V developed by the Russian Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology, Covovax by Novavax, Covaxin by Bharat Biotech and a few others are in various stages of being considered by the WHO for emergency use.
