WHO interested in best practices, clinical data on vaccines getting emergency use approval

Geneva [Switzerland], November 28 (ANI/Sputnik): Mariangela Simao, the World Health Organization's (WHO) assistant director-general for access to medicines and health products, said on Friday that the exchange of clinical data and best practices of COVID-19 vaccine manufacturing remained crucial, especially with those vaccine candidates which were in the process of getting emergency use authorization.
"We have mentioned weeks before that WHO has issued an expression of interest to assess for emergency use listing candidate vaccines on phase 2 and phase 3, and this expression is still open. ... we still have to see not only the clinical data but also the good manufacturing practices data that are part of when a country does an emergency use authorization or WHO does an emergency use listing," Simao said.
She added that there were several advanced vaccine candidates, and their developers had already engaged in information exchange with WHO.
There are currently as many as 48 candidate vaccines on the WHO's list. Some manufacturers have already begun releasing the interim results of phase 3 trials.
Russia's Sputnik V, as well as candidate vaccines produced by Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna, have all reported over 90 percent efficacy, according to preliminary data. The average efficacy of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine totals 70 percent, interim analysis shows. (ANI/Sputnik)