Five Years After COVID: QazVac Still Without WHO Certification

Five years after the COVID-19 pandemic began, Kazakhstan’s national coronavirus vaccine, QazVac, has still not been certified by the World Health Organization (WHO), Orda.kz reports.

Health Minister Akmaral Alnazarova confirmed the status at a briefing following a government meeting.

She explained that Kazakhstan must meet several key requirements to move forward with WHO pre-qualification:

To complete pre-qualification with the WHO, we need to meet a range of requirements that we are working on today, including strengthening the material and technical base. One mandatory step is launching the second production line at the vaccine manufacturing facility, and that work is also underway. 

Baurzhan Zhusipov, Chair of the Medical and Pharmaceutical Control Committee at the Ministry of Health, added that Kazakhstan expects to reach the third level of the regulatory system by the end of 2025—a key milestone that would enable the country to pursue international recognition of QazVac.

The Health Ministry has previously stated that one of the core conditions for WHO certification is the presence of a full-cycle vaccine production process within Kazakhstan.

Original Author: Artyom Volkov