WHO gives emergency authorisation for AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine

Geneva, Feb 15: The World Health Organization has granted an emergency authorisation to the coronavirus vaccine made by AstraZeneca and Oxford University, a move that should allow the company''s partners to ship millions of doses to countries worldwide as part of a U.N.-backed program to tame the pandemic.

In a statement Monday, the U.N. health agency said it was authorising the AstraZeneca vaccines made by the Serum Institute of India and South Korea''s AstraZeneca-SKBio.

WHO''s green light for the AstraZeneca vaccine should trigger the delivery of hundreds of millions of doses to countries that have signed up for the U.N.-backed COVAX effort, which aims to deliver vaccines to the world''s most vulnerable.

Although WHO does not approve or regulate vaccines, it assesses their safety and effectiveness for developing countries that don''t have a strong regulatory system.