GENEVA – The World Health Organisation (WHO) yesterday said it has listed the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine for emergency use.
The listing procedure helps countries unable to assess a jab’s effectiveness themselves have access as quickly as possible, and allows the Covax vaccine-sharing scheme and other partners to distribute it to poorer countries.
The United States vaccine is the fifth jab to earn WHO’s emergency listing.
The US Food and Drug Administration issued an emergency-use authorisation for the Moderna jab on December 18 last year, and a marketing authorisation valid throughout the European Union was granted by the European Medicines Agency on January 6.
WHO in a statement said its Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunisation found the Moderna jab to have an efficacy of 94.1%.
The other vaccines listed for emergency use by WHO are those produced by Pfizer-BioNTech, AstraZeneca, Serum Institute of India, and Janssen.
Moderna on Thursday said it expects to produce up to three billion doses of its vaccine next year through new funding commitments to boost supply at manufacturing sites in Europe and the US. – AFP, May 1, 2021
