WHO Approves Chinese-Produced HIV, Hepatitis Vaccines

Two Chinese-produced vaccines, a Bivalent Oral Poliomyelitis Vaccine; and Hepatitis A vaccine, have received pre-qualification by the World Health Organisation.

The move indicates that the WHO has given the vaccines its stamp of approval for the safety and efficacy, and United Nations procuring agencies may now source them.

Mr. Fabio Scano, an officer in the WHO Representative Office in China, said: “Pre-qualification of BOPV is very good news for the Global Polio Eradication Initiative.

“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 pre-qualified by the WHO.

“We are very pleased to see China’s innovation and production capacity bring life-saving vaccines to the world through the WHO pre-qualification programme,” said Scano. (Xinhua/NAN)