Astrazeneca Pharma shares climb over 5% after WHO approval to Covid vaccine for emergency use

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Shares of Astrazeneca Pharma soared over 5% in Tuesday morning trade after the World Health Organisation has granted an emergency authorization to the company’s coronavirus vaccine. The move will allow the UN agency’s partners to ship millions of doses to countries as part of a UN-backed programme to tame the pandemic.

The scrip traded 5.60% up at Rs 3,835 at around 10.25 am (IST), while the benchmark BSE Sensex traded 170 points, or 0.33%, up at 52,324 at around the same time.

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.

The WHO’s green light for the AstraZeneca vaccine is only the second one the UN health agency has issued after authorizing the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in December.

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.