The World Health Organization said Friday it has approved for emergency use a coronavirus vaccine developed by Chinese state-owned pharmaceutical group Sinopharm.
Beijing’s Covid vaccine is recommended for adults 18 years and up with a two-dose regimen, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a press briefing.
The new addition to the list of usable vaccine options could hasten efforts to control the spread of Covid-19 and its variant forms, which are driving new infections in many parts of the world.
“Solving the vaccine crisis requires that we pull out all the stops,” Tedros said.
Sinopharm’s shot is the sixth to receive the WHO’s approval for “safety, efficacy and quality,” he said.
“Vaccines remain a vital tool. But right now, the volume and distribution of vaccines are insufficient to end the pandemic, without the sustained and tailored application of public health measures that we know work,” Tedros said.
“The pandemic has shown that when health is at risk, everything is at risk. But when health is protected and promoted, individuals, families, communities, economies, and nations can thrive,” he said.
The state-owned drugmaker’s two-dose Covid shot has already been approved for emergency use in China, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain.
Another Chinese shot, made by the private company Sinovac, has not yet been approved by the WHO.
In the U.S., vaccines developed by Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson have received emergency use authorizations by the Food and Drug Administration.
The WHO has granted emergency validation for those three shots, as well as for vaccines produced by AstraZeneca-SK BIO and the Serum Institute of India.