AstraZeneca Pharma surges 10% as WHO gives nod to Covid vaccine for emergency use

NEW DELHI: AstraZeneca Pharma shares climbed 6 per cent on Tuesday amid reports that the World Health Organisation has granted an emergency authorisation to parent AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine, a move that should allow the UN agency’s partners to ship millions of doses to countries, as part of a UN-backed programme to tame the pandemic.

In a statement Monday, the WHO said it was clearing the AstraZeneca vaccines made by the Serum Institute of India and South Korea’s AstraZeneca-SKBio.

Following the development, shares of the MNC’s India unit, AstraZeneca Pharma, climbed 9.7 per cent to hit a high of Rs 3,985 on BSE.

The WHO’s green light for the AstraZeneca vaccine is only the second one the UN health agency has issued after authorising the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in December, PTI reported. Monday’s announcement should trigger the delivery of hundreds of millions of doses to countries that have signed up for the UN-backed COVAX effort, which aims to deliver vaccines to the world’s most vulnerable people.

The AstraZeneca vaccine has already been authorised in more than 50 countries, including Britain, India, Argentina and Mexico. It is cheaper and easier to handle than the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which needs deep-cold storage that is not widespread in many developing nations. Both vaccines require two shots per person, given weeks apart.

Last week, WHO vaccine experts recommended the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine for people over age 18, including in countries that have detected variants of COVID-19.