Regulators working within own regions likely harmonize efforts

GENEVA: WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan said that the regulators that normally work within their own countries or regions will likely harmonize efforts on potential COVID-19 vaccines to speed up their approvals once they become available.

Swaminathan said that the testing vaccines for safety and efficacy usually a years-long process could be accelerated to just six months in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic if data satisfied regulators that they have enough information to issue approvals.

Still, she said, safety would be paramount. “Whilst speed is important, it cannot be at the cost of compromising on the safety or the efficacy standards that one is setting for oneself,” she said.

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“It’s not the case that the first vaccine is going to be rushed through into injecting millions of people without having established the fact whether it’s really protecting you and whether it’s safe enough for use in large populations,” he added.