Form of words:
New Delhi: Even as the inclusion of Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin in the Emergency Use List (EUL) category of the World Health Organization (WHO) is in limbo, India has asked WHO and UN officials in line at the launch of a book on vaccine making. has erected.
Book Going Viral: The Inside Story of CovaxinAccording to ICMR officials, not only covers the entire journey of Kovaxin, but also a bit history of Covid travel to India from the first case in January 2020.
Among those present at the book’s release on Thursday at the UNAIDS office in Geneva were Dr. Soumya Swaminathan, WHO’s principal scientist; Dr. Mariangela Simao, WHO ADG Access to medicines and health products; Nana Taona Kuo, Senior Health Adviser, Executive Office of the UN Secretary-General; and Puneet Agarwal, DPR Indian Mission to the United Nations in Geneva.
The presence of Dr. Balram Bhargava, DG ICMR, in Geneva at a time when the EUL for Covaxin is being pushed from one meeting of the WHO’s Technical Advisory Group (TAG) to the next – last retrieved 26 Was. It will be reconsidered on October and November 3 – speculation has swirled about the approval process.
However, ICMR officials clarified that Dr Bhargava was in Geneva for a “health technology assessment meeting”.
Officials also denied that WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was expected to attend the event, but withdrew due to the ongoing EUL feud. A senior ICMR official said, “Anyone who is saying that Dr Tedros had to be present is probably related to the DG and has information that we are not aware of.”
“The world is very interested in Covaxin. Adjuvant is featured on the cover of an international science magazine iScience That’s why people are very curious. There is a belief that killed virus vaccines do not work well but we have shown otherwise. That is why the launch took place in Geneva,” said Dr Samiran Panda, head of epidemiology and communicable diseases at ICMR.
Responding to a question by epidemiologist Dr Ramanan Laxminarayan, founder of the Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics and Policy, Dr Bhargava said: “You asked what we would have done differently. We know the vaccine requires a BSLIII facility and scaling it up was an issue… About 85% of the vaccines used in India were AstraZeneca. But now we will see more and more Covaxin.”
Dr Bhargava, however, did not respond to a question about the EUL process.
‘India’s key role’
Officials praised India’s handling of the pandemic but made no mention of the vaccine’s troubles with the WHO regulatory framework.
Congratulating the ICMR and tracing its past as the head of the council, Dr Soumya Swaminathan stressed the need for more teams on the ground and more community-based surveillance for faster detection of future pandemics.
He said that India has an important role to play as a technology and data sharing hub.
Simao, who is from Brazil, described India’s “shocking numbers” as a challenge and congratulated ICMR for the vaccine. “WHO is very supportive of India’s initiative on TRIPS exemptions,” she said.
Meanwhile, Kuo said India’s success reflects the “strength of low- and middle-income countries”.
Read also: India says WHO has been given all Covaxin data, expects positive results at meeting next week
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