If bought in bulk quantity: Firm offers to supply Oxford-Astrazeneca’s vaccine for $6-7 per dose

Pakistan has approved Oxford-Astrazeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine for emergency use.

KARACHI: A Pakistani firm, authorised to import Oxford-Astrazeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine, has offered to supply it at the value of USD 6-7 per dose to the federal and provincial governments if they procure it in bulk quantity, The News has learnt. But it refused to offer a correct timeline on when it might be ready to supply the vaccine within the country.

The local firm, Sindh Medical Stores (SMS), was allowed to import the Oxford-Astrazeneca’s vaccine in Pakistan by the Drug regulatory agency of Pakistan (DRAP) on Friday last when the authority, on the recommendations of an experts panel, gave the emergency use authorisation to the British-Swedish multinational company’s AZD-1222 vaccine within the country.

“After getting the emergency use authorisation and permission from the DRAP to import the Oxford-Astrazeneca’s AZD1222 vaccine in Pakistan, we've offered to supply it for USD 6-7 per dose to the federal and provincial governments. We, however, don’t know once we would be ready to line up of the primary consignment of the vaccine because it has been already purchased by the several countries of the planet ,” Usman Ghani, a politician of SMS, told The News on Wednesday.

The SMS official, in offers to the federal and provincial governments, said they might be ready to provide British company’s vaccine tentatively for 6-7 dollars per dose (from Rs1,000 to 1,200 per dose) if it's purchased within the quantity of 30 to 50 million doses.

“For the private sector and institutions, we've offered to supply it for Rs2,000 to Rs2,500 per dose if they order 10,000 or more doses. But it should be very clear that we might only be providing the vaccine to reputed institutions like Aga Khan University Hospital (AKUH), Shaukat Khanum hospital et al. ,” Usman Ghani added.

Answering a question about the supply of Astrazeneca’s vaccine in Pakistan, he said he didn't know once they would be ready to get the vaccine for Pakistani people, saying at the instant , Astrazeneca was supplying it to other countries which had already booked the vaccine doses for his or her people and paid the corporate beforehand .

“Astrazeneca has authorised to manufacture the vaccine within the Serum Institute of India, Pune, for bulk production but most of the assembly would be used for vaccinating a sizeable population of India before it's allowed to Pakistan. we've excellent business relations with the Serum Institute of India and that we would try our greatest to acquire it as early as possible,” he added.

When asked some people were approaching the authorities, especially the Sindh government, to supply the Astrazeneca’s vaccine for 13.5 to 15.5 dollars, he said they were the ‘sole importers’ and authorised agents of British firm Astrazeneca, which wasn't even able to supply the vaccine on to Pakistan and advised the authorities to stay cautious of individuals and firms, who would attempt to take a plus of things thanks to urgency in getting the Covid-19 vaccine.

“Similarly, there are reports that we've offered to provide the vaccine in thousands of rupees per dose, which is additionally incorrect and misleading. We cannot supply any product without the approval of DRAP and that we hope that it might approve the vaccine price, which we've demanded,” he added.

Following the emergency use authorisation to both British and Chinese vaccines, the matter has been forwarded to the Drug regulatory agency of Pakistan’s pricing board, a politician of the DRAP told The News, saying without the approval of pricing board, no product are often sold in Pakistan.