MEA to help Covaxin get WHO approval

Sandeep Dikshit

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, May 24

Though no country has instituted a vaccine passport yet, Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla today assured Bharat Biotech full support from the Indian diplomatic establishment in securing approval of WHO and important countries as it might become a necessary travel document in future.

Bharat Biotech has already submitted 90 per cent of the documentation required for emergency use listing (EUL) to WHO and the remaining is expected to be submitted by next month.

There was a flutter after Bharat Biotech’s vaccine was not included in the WHO’s first list of vaccines for EUL. It is felt that these authorised vaccines will be mandatory in future for air travel between countries.

The MEA has clarified that countries have their own requirements for approval, which in most cases involves travel by carrying a negative RT-PCR report. A majority of countries are yet to adopt vaccine certificates as a travel document as important as the visa.

A meeting was held between Bharat Biotech team led by its MD V Krishna Mohan and senior officers of the Ministry of Health, Department of Biotechnology and MEA.

On the issue of WHO’s authorisation for EUL, Krishna Mohan was confident of getting WHO’s EUL given its experience of getting its other vaccines prequalified by WHO. Bharat Biotech informed the officials that it is in regular touch with regulatory authorities in these countries and are confident about the robustness of their dossier, as they have data for much longer duration – for antibody persistence after six months as well as eight months. It is one of the few companies that have published papers on all four variants.