Hindustan Times (Lucknow)

US decides to share AZ vaccines with the world

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The US will begin sharing its entire pipeline of vaccines from AstraZenec­a once the Covid-19 vaccine clears federal safety reviews, the White House said, with as many as 60 million doses expected to be available for export in the coming months.

The move greatly expands on the Biden administra­tion’s action last month to share about 4 million doses of the vaccine with Mexico and Canada. The AstraZenec­a vaccine is widely in use around the world but not yet authorised by the US Food and Drug Administra­tion (FDA).

The move comes as the White House is assured about the supply of the three vaccines being administer­ed in the US, particular­ly following the restart of the single-dose Johnson & Johnson shot over the weekend.

“Given the strong portfolio of vaccines that the US already has and that have been authorised by the FDA, and given that the AstraZenec­a vaccine is not authorised for use in the US, we do not need to use the vaccine here during the next several months,” said White House Covid-19 coordinato­r Jeff Zients. “Therefore the US is looking at options to share the AstraZenec­a doses with other countries.”

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