Bharat Biotech's Covaxin will be approved for emergency use by the WHO's Technical Advisory Group today

The Technical Advisory Group (TAG), an independent advisory group of the World Health Organization (WHO), will meet on Wednesday to evaluate whether Bharat Biotech's anti-COVID vaccination Covaxin would be granted emergency use authorisation.

The technical panel had previously requested further explanations from Bharat Biotech, the vaccine's maker, in order to complete a final risk-benefit analysis for global use of the vaccine.

News agency ANI quoted a WHO official as saying, "The TAG met on October 26, 2021, and decided to seek additional clarifications from the Covaxin manufacturers that are needed to conduct a final EUL risk-benefit assessment for global use of the vaccine."

"The TAG expects to receive these clarifications from the manufacturer by the end of this week and aims to reconvene for the final risk-benefit assessment on Wednesday, 3 November," the WHO had said in a statement.

The TAG-EUL (Technical Advisory Panel for Emergency Use Listing) is an independent advisory group that advises WHO on whether a Covid19 vaccine should be listed for emergency use under the EUL method.

Covaxin has been shown to be effective against symptomatic COVID-19 at 77.8% and 65.2 percent against the novel Delta variant at 65.2 percent.

The final analysis of Covaxin efficacy from Phase 3 studies has been completed, according to Bharat Biotech. Covaxin by Bharat Biotech and Covishield by AstraZeneca and Serum Institute are the two most extensively used vaccines in India.

Meanwhile, as of 7 p.m. on Tuesday, India's total vaccination coverage had surpassed 107 crore people. Pfizer-BioNTech, AstraZeneca-SK Bio/Serum Institute of India, Johnson 7 Johnson - Janssen, Moderna, and Sinopharm have all had their Covid-19 vaccines authorised by the WHO for emergency use.