Two Chinese-produced vaccines, a Bivalent Oral Poliomyelitis Vaccine (BOPV) and a Hepatitis “A” Vaccine (HAV), have received prequalification by the World Health Organisation, WHO.
The move indicates that WHO has given the vaccines its stamp of approval for the safety and efficacy, and UN procuring agencies may now source them.
Mr Fabio Scano, an officer in the WHO Representative Office in China, said: “prequalification of BOPV is very good news for the Global Polio Eradication Initiative.
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“Following the switch from trivalent OPV to BOPV in 2016, most countries are going to cure polio with the combination of inactivated polio vaccine and BOPV and China will be a sufficient supplier of this essential vaccine.”
The country now has four vaccines prequalified by WHO.
“We are very pleased to see China’s innovation and production capacity bring lifesaving vaccines to the world through the WHO prequalification programme,” said Scano.(Xinhua/NAN)
