Chief scientist at the World Health Organization (WHO) Dr. Soumya Swaminathan said on Monday that the WHO is discussing cooperation with Chinese COVID-19 vaccine developers.

Two Chinese vaccines, produced by Sinovac and Sinopharm, are now "in very advanced stage" of the WHO Emergency Use Listing Procedure (EUL) assessment, the WHO said last week. 

China has already said that it would contribute 10 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to the COVID-19 Vaccine Global Access (COVAX) facility initiated by the WHO. Dr. Swaminathan said the WHO is "very encouraged" by that.

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China's vaccines in last stage of assessment: WHO

So far, only the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine has earned the EUL approval. Two other vaccines – Britain's AstraZeneca and South Korea's SK Bioscience – are also being assessed.

The EUL, a process for licensing new vaccines by the WHO, is important for many applications, not least to be approved as part of the COVAX Facility led by the WHO for efficient and equitable global access to the COVID-19 vaccines.

(With input from Xinhua)