India Made AstraZeneca's COVID-19 Vaccine Not Eligible For EU Travel, Seeks Resolution: Reuters

  • Serum Institute of India's (SII) CEO Adar Poonawalla said he was trying to resolve EU travel problems facing Indians inoculated with SII's licensed version of AstraZeneca Plc's AZN COVID-19 vaccine.
  • "I have taken this up at the highest levels and hope to resolve this matter soon, both with regulators and at a diplomatic level with countries," Poonawalla said on Twitter.
  • India's Ministry of External Affairs has raised Covishield's lack of recognition by the European Medicines Agency (EMA).
  • The EMA said the only COVID-19 vaccine from AstraZeneca for which a marketing authorization application had been submitted and evaluated was Vaxzevria.
  • Covishield does not currently have marketing authorization in the EU, even though it may use a similar production technology to Vaxzevria, the agency said.
  • In addition to the AstraZeneca shot in the region, the other EU-recognized vaccines are those made by Moderna Inc MRNAPfizer Inc PFEBioNTech SE BNTX, and Johnson & Johnson JNJ.
  • A European Union vaccine passport program will allow people to travel freely within the bloc from July 1, as long as they have had one of four Western-made vaccines.
  • In April, Reuters reported that the EU was seeking 10 million Covishield doses from SII to meet a shortfall before India halted all exports amid a domestic infection surge. 
  • Price Action: AZN shares are up 1.03% at $59.96 during the market session on the last check Monday.
Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs
Comments
Loading...
Posted In: BiotechGovernmentNewsHealth CareFDAGeneralBriefsCOVID-19 VaccineReuters
Benzinga simplifies the market for smarter investing

Trade confidently with insights and alerts from analyst ratings, free reports and breaking news that affects the stocks you care about.

Join Now: Free!