Government to procure 1 million doses of COVID19 vaccine: Dr. Faisal
News Desk :
Dr. Faisal Sultan, the Prime Minister’s Special Assistant on Health on Wednesday said the government has decided to procure 1 million doses of the COVID19 vaccine by March this year.
He expressed these views while addressing a press conference in Islamabad.
Dr. Faisal spoke about the two vaccines that have already been approved by the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (Drap) — one manufactured by China’s Sinopharm and the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine.
“We are in the advanced stage of discussion for procurement with two companies: Sinopharm and Cansino. Sinopharm’s vaccine is the one you have heard about being used in several countries including the UAE. It has an efficacy of 80 percent and in some places, 85pc efficacy has also been reported.
“The phase 3 trials of Cansino’s vaccine are being conducted in Pakistan and they are near completion. Their results will come forward soon,” Dr. Sultan said.
The candidate, known as Ad5-nCoV or Convidecia, which CanSinoBIO is jointly developing with a research institute backed by the Chinese military, is among the five vaccines China has moved into Phase 3 clinical trials to test their efficacy.
Giving further information about the trials, he said 17,500 people participated in them and three out of five centres where they were conducted had completed the process whereas two centres were in the final stage of the trial.
Government to procure 1 million doses of COVID19 vaccine: Dr. Faisal
