Moderna jab to be reviewed for WHO emergency listing on April 30 – WHO spokesman

FILE PHOTO: Moderna coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccines are pictured at a rural vaccination site in Columbus, New Mexico, U.S., April 16, 2021. REUTERS/Paul Ratje

GENEVA — Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine will be reviewed on April 30 by technical experts for possible WHO emergency-use listing, a World Health Organization (WHO) spokesman told Reuters.

“We are discussing the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine on Friday…,” WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier said in reply to a query. A decision on the U.S. drugmaker’s vaccine, now being evaluated under the abridged procedure on the basis of prior review by the European Medicines Agency, was expected in one to four days after that, Lindmeier said.

So far COVID-19 vaccines made by Pfizer, AstraZeneca, and Johnson & Johnson have received WHO approval, which is a signal to national regulatory authorities on a product’s safety and efficacy.

The WHO committee of technical experts was on Monday reviewing the COVID-19 vaccine of Chinese drugmaker Sinopharm and is due to review the Sinovac product at its next meeting on May 3, according to the WHO.

Stephane Bancel, Moderna CEO, told an event last Friday that it was on track to make up to 1 billion doses of its COVID-19 vaccine this year and 1.4 billion next year.

“We’re in the final stretch to get an agreement with COVAX,” Bancel said, referring to the vaccine-sharing facility run by the GAVI Vaccine Alliance and the WHO to bring doses to lower-income countries