Kathmandu:
Nepal’s national drug regulatory authority on Saturday granted emergency use approval to Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin, becoming the third nation to approve India’s indigenously created COVID-19 vaccine.
A meeting of the drug advisory committee of the Department of Drug Administration decided to concern a conditional emergency use authorisation to India’s homegrown government-backed vaccine Covaxin, the third COVID-19 vaccine authorised in the nation,The Kathmandu Post reported.
Covaxin, which demonstrated an interim vaccine efficacy of 81 per cent in the Phase 3 clinical trials India, was authorized for emergency use in India in January and Zimbabwe cleared it early this month.
Bharat Biotech had applied for emergency use authorisation for its vaccine in Nepal on January 13. Of the 3 applications filed on January 13, the division had initially granted emergency use authorisation to Oxford-AstraZeneca on January 15.
The AstraZeneca vaccine, manufactured by the Serum Institute of India beneath the name of Covishiled, was then accordingly brought to the nation.
Nepal granted emergency use authorisation to BBIBP-CorV vaccine, created by China’s Sinopharm on February 17.
Emergency use authorisation (EUA) is granted for some drugs and vaccines by authorities in the course of a declared emergency when officials can make a judgment that the drug is worth releasing, even without the need of all the proof that would totally establish its effectiveness and security.
Such a choice is taken when there is sufficient proof to recommend that patients have benefited from the drug/vaccine.
Nepal has utilised one million doses of AstraZeneca vaccines supplied by India in January beneath grant help in sync with its Neighbourhood First’ policy.
It is now also awaiting a further consignment of 2 million AstraZeneca vaccines from the Serum Institute of India (SII).
The most up-to-date approval comes as authorities in Nepal mentioned they had been suspending their vaccination campaign mainly because of a lack of provide.
Nepal has reported 275,750 instances and 3,016 deaths so far, according to government information.
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