Union Health Minister Mandaviya meets WHO Chief Scientist on Covaxin approval

Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Thursday met World Health Organization (WHO) Chief Scientist Dr Soumya Swaminathan and held a discussion over the world body’s approval of Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin.

The Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech manufactured COVID-19 vaccine earlier this month received a certificate of Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) compliance from the Hungarian authorities. The approval was received from the National Institute of Pharmacy and Nutrition Hungary certifying the GMP for the manufacture of Covaxin.

With the approval, Bharat Biotech achieved another significant milestone in innovating and manufacturing vaccines at global quality standards and moving forward in the ongoing fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, read Bharat Biotech statement.

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has however revealed in its study that the combination of Covaxin and Covishield vaccines, the two main vaccines of the country’s COVID-19 vaccination programme, conducted on 18 people, has elicited better safety and immunogenicity results.

The nationwide vaccination program had entered into the fourth month when the event of mixed dosing raised considerable anxiety in the public domain with the potential to contributing to vaccine hesitancy. ICMR conducted the current investigation against that backdrop.