Vaccine developed in India given green light months into use

NEW DELHI (AP) — The World Health Organization has granted an emergency use license to a coronavirus vaccine developed in India, offering reassurance for a shot the country’s regulators authorized long before advanced safety and efficacy testing was completed.

In a statement on Wednesday, the U.N. health agency said it had authorized Covaxin, made by India’s Bharat Biotech. The action makes Covaxin the eighth COVID-19 vaccine to receive WHO’s green light.

Covaxin was developed by Bharat Biotech in partnership with the Indian Council of Medical Research, the government’s apex research body. The vaccine is made using a killed coronavirus to prompt an immune response and is given in two doses.

India’s drug regulator authorized Covaxin in January, months before extensive testing in people had been completed, prompting concern from health experts that the shot was given the nod prematurely.