Geneva: The World Health Organization (WHO) has granted emergency use validation for the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine, opening the door for countries to expedite their own regulatory approval processes to import and administer the vaccine.
While many countries rely on their own regulatory systems for vaccine approvals, some countries with weak system depend on WHO’s nod to a great extent for rolling out their national vaccination programmes.
The WHO’s emergency validation also enables Unicef and the Pan-American Health Organization to procure the vaccine for distribution to countries in need, the UN health agency said on Thursday.
Several countries including the US and the UK have already approved the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine.
This is the first time WHO has granted emergency validation to a Covid-19 vaccine since the outbreak began a year ago.
“This is a very positive step towards ensuring global access to Covid-19 vaccines. But I want to emphasise the…