The anti-Covid vaccine Covaxin, the first fully developed in India, received emergency approval from the World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday, the eighth since the start of the epidemic.

This vaccine - 78% effective - is recommended for all age groups from 18 years old.

It requires two doses four weeks apart, but is "particularly well suited to low and middle income countries because of the ease with which it can be stored," according to a WHO statement.

Inactivated virus

It is the first vaccine entirely developed and manufactured in India to receive approval from the UN organization. It joins the anti-Covid vaccines from Pfizer-Biontech, Moderna, Astra Zeneca (WHO has two AZ vaccines one of which is made in India), Johnson & Johnson, Sinopharm and Sinovac on the list. The announcement comes as the official threshold of 5 million deaths from Covid-19 has just been crossed. The real toll of the disease, detected at the end of 2019 in China before becoming the worst pandemic in a hundred years, could in the opinion of the WHO be two or three times higher.

The Covaxin vaccine, or BBV152, is an inactivated virus vaccine, a relatively classic technology but with a new adjuvant that makes it more effective, according to the manufacturer.

It is this adjuvant that distinguishes it from the two other inactivated virus vaccines already authorized by the WHO, those from the Chinese laboratories Sinovac and Sinopharm.

Storage is simpler than for messenger RNA vaccines like Moderna and Pfizer-Biontech, which have been shown to be the most effective of all the sera authorized so far, but still need to be transported and stored at ultra-high temperatures. low temperature.

Global access?

According to its manufacturer, Bharat Biontech, Covaxin can be transported and stored long term at 2 to 8 degrees Celsius, a home refrigerator temperature. The company also points out that it is packaged in a multiple dose vial to reduce wastage. The approval by the WHO makes it possible to facilitate the international recognition of the vaccine and especially to the UN agencies and the Covax system - set up to facilitate access to anti-Covid immunization in the most deprived countries - of make use of.

“The WHO approval is a significant step towards global access to Covaxin which is safe, effective and already widely used in India,” said Dr Krishna Ella, CEO of Bharat Biotech.

Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar also rejoiced in a tweet.

He believes that the approval "will make travel easier for many Indian citizens and it contributes to vaccine equity."

Vaccine inequity - the richest countries have reserved most of the vaccine doses available for themselves - is a problem that has been relentlessly denounced by the WHO as well as by the countries which are victims of it.

Keep up the pressure

The organization recently pointed out that “so far, only 0.4% of tests and 0.5% of vaccines injected worldwide have been used in low-income countries, despite the fact that these countries account for 9 % of the world population "" This emergency approval increases the availability of vaccines, the most effective medical means to put an end to the pandemic ", underlined the doctor Mariangela Simao, in charge of the access to medicines to the WHO.

"But we must keep up the pressure to meet the needs of all populations, give priority to risk groups who are still waiting for their first dose, before we can claim victory."

According to Bharat Biotech, the production capacity was 50 to 55 million doses per month in October and the company expects to reach an annual production capacity of one billion doses by the end of 2021. Technology transfers "are also underway to companies in India, the United States and other countries ”, specifies Bharat Biotech.

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