A dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine is administered in Yangon, Myanmar, last month.
Ye Aung Thu/AFP via Getty ImagesThe World Health Organization granted an emergency-use listing to AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine that will allow it to be used widely in developing nations.
AstraZeneca’s (ticker: AZN) vaccine has been authorized in the European Union, the U.K., and other countries. But the World Health Organization designation, issued Monday, will allow the vaccine, which is easy to store and inexpensive, to be distributed through the COVAX Facility, the WHO-led effort to send doses to low-income countries.
“Countries with no access to vaccines to date will finally be able to start vaccinating their health workers and populations at risk,” said the WHO assistant director general for access to medicines and health products, Dr. Mariângela Simão.
AstraZeneca’s American depository receipts were down 0.7% in premarket trading on Tuesday. U.S. markets were closed on Monday for the Presidents Day holiday.
Importantly, the WHO emergency listing authorizes the AstraZenca vaccine for use in individuals older than 18 years, including people over 65. While people over 65 are included in the authorization of the vaccine in the U.K., German authorities are not recommending the vaccine for people over 65.
The WHO news comes a week after South African authorities paused their rollout of the AstraZeneca vaccine after data from a small study suggested that the vaccine may be minimally effective against the local variant of the virus.
AstraZeneca has struggled with manufacturing issues in recent weeks, leading to anger from European officials over the limited supply currently available.
The WHO authorization applies to two separate versions of the vaccine, one produced by the Serum Institute of India, a private vaccine manufacturer, and one by AstraZeneca.
“Today’s approval endorses that the vaccine can be used to help protect populations across the world, including adults over 65 years and in countries where different variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus are in circulation,” said AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot in a statement. “This is a huge step towards ensuring global access to our vaccine and helping us fulfill our public health commitment to broad and equitable access at no profit during the pandemic.”
The company said that “it is hoped” that more than 300 million doses of the vaccine will be made available through COVAX in the first half of this year.
The AstraZeneca vaccine is the second to receive WHO authorization. The first, the messenger RNA vaccine developed by Pfizer (PFE) and BioNTech (BNTX), has strict storage requirements, making it difficult to distribute in low-income countries.
Write to Josh Nathan-Kazis at josh.nathan-kazis@barrons.com
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February 16, 2021 at 08:05PM
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World Health Organization Authorizes AstraZeneca's Covid-19 Vaccine - Barron's
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