Covaxin's wait continues, WHO raises technical queries, health body says ‘it’s routine’

New Delhi, Sep 28: The much-awaited approval from the World Health Organisation (WHO) for Covaxin, is likely to be delayed by a few more weeks. This is because WHO has sent more technical queries to its manufacturer Bharat Biotech.

This delay WHO approval is likely to adversely affect Indians', especially students', international travel plans.

"As a responsible manufacturer with past approvals for our other vaccines, we do not find it appropriate to speculate or comment on the regulatory approval process & its timelines. We are diligently working with the WHO to obtain EUL at the earliest," said Bharat Biotech.

"It's the usual process. Experts raise queries, which need to be answered by the company," a source told News 18.

The WHO has so far approved Covid vaccines developed by Pfizer-BioNTech, US pharma majors Johnson & Johnson, Moderna, China's Sinopharm and Oxford-AstraZeneca for emergency use.

Covaxin is one of the six vaccines that have received emergency use authorisation from India's drug regulator and is being used in the nationwide inoculation programme, alongwith Covishield and Sputnik V.

The Centre had told Rajya Sabha in July that all documents required for the WHO's Emergency Use Listing (EUL) have been submitted by Bharat Biotech as of July 9, and the global health body had commenced the review process.