COVAX Open To All Approved COVID-19 Vaccines

COVAX Open to All Approved COVID-19 Vaccines

The COVAX vaccine-sharing scheme will add any coronavirus shot to its toolbox as long as it has been approved by the World Health Organization or a national drug regulator, the Gavi vaccine alliance told Sputnik on Thursday

GENEVA (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 24th June, 2021) The COVAX vaccine-sharing scheme will add any coronavirus shot to its toolbox as long as it has been approved by the World Health Organization or a national drug regulator, the Gavi vaccine alliance told Sputnik on Thursday.

"COVAX will consider procuring vaccines that complement the portfolio from any producer in the world, once they have received approval from a stringent regulatory authority and/or prequalification by the WHO," the Geneva-based alliance said.

It added that COVAX continued to negotiate with other suppliers and expected to announce further advance purchases shortly.

Gavi signed two advance purchase deals with US pharma companies Moderna and Novavax in May for a total of 850 million doses due to arrive in 2021 and 2022.

Konstantin Chernov, the head of the Chumakov Centre, said on Thursday that the Russian research facility had offered its inactivated virus-based CoviVac shot to COVAX. It plans to apply for prequalification this fall, once the third stage of clinical trials is cleared.