China in talks with WHO over vaccine

SINGAPORE: China is in talks to have its locallyproduced Covid19 vaccines assessed by the World Health Organisation, as a step towards making them available for international use, a WHO official said yesterday.

Hundreds of thousands of essential workers and other groups considered at high risk in China have been given locallydeveloped vaccines even though clinical trials had not been fully completed, raising safety concerns among experts.

Socorro Escalate, WHO's coordinator for essential medicines and health technologies in the Western Pacific region, told a news conference conducted online that China had held preliminary discussions with WHO to have its vaccines included in a list for emergency use.

The WHO's emergency use listing procedure allows unlicensed vaccines and treatments to be assessed to expedite their availability in public health emergencies. This helps assist the WHO's member states and UN procurement agencies to determine the acceptability of the vaccines. — Reuters