Aimed at integrating COVID-19 pandemic vaccines with national immunisation programmes in countries of the World Health Organization’s South-East Asia Region, vaccine regulators and officials from the WHO on Tuesday began deliberating strategies for member countries to transition from the use of COVID-19 vaccines under Emergency Use Authorisation (EUA) to full Marketing Authorisation (MA).
“Even though the acute phase of the COVID-19 pandemic is over, the virus is still circulating. We need to make sure people continue to stay protected from existing and future variants. For this, it is crucial that the regulatory authorities of member states are better equipped to take considered decisions to grant long-term authorisation to COVID-19 vaccines, and introduce them in national immunisation programmes as per requirements,” Poonam Khetrapal Singh, Regional Director, WHO South-East Asia said at the start of the three-day regional workshop on ‘Conversion of Emergency Use Authorisation (EUA) to full Marketing Authorisation (MA) for pandemic vaccines including COVID-19’, organised by the WHO in Kathmandu, Nepal.
At the meeting, members of the National Regulatory Authorities (NRA) and National Control Laboratories (NCL) of member countries, and experts from the WHO and the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), Australia are set to deliberate key considerations in meeting regulatory requirements and licensing regulations for the pandemic vaccines.
