Oxford-Astrazeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine allowed in Pakistan
KARACHI: The Drug regulatory agency of Pakistan (DRAP) on Saturday gave emergency use authorization to Oxford-Astrazeneca’s AZD1222 in Pakistan following recommendations by a six-member panel of health experts. a personal firm has been allowed to import the COVID-19 vaccine within the country.
“The Drug regulatory agency of Pakistan (DRAP) has given the emergency use authorization to Oxford-Astrazeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine in Pakistan,” Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Health Dr. Faisal Sultan told The News on Saturday.
A panel of six leading health scientists of the country, including three from the Aga Khan University (AKU) had been constituted by the govt of Pakistan to review the info submitted by different vaccine manufacturers and to make a decision which vaccine should be allowed to be administered to the people, keeping in sight its safety and efficacy during the trials.
The Sindh Medical Stores (SMS), an outsized importer of the vaccines and medicines in Pakistan, had applied for the emergency use authorization for the AZD1222 vaccine, jointly developed by the Oxford University and Astrazeneca and submitted its data also as Emergency Use Authorization given to by the ecu and other international authorities.
The DRAP officials said, four to 5 international firms including three Chinese firms had applied for the emergency use authorization of their vaccines in Pakistan but supported the recommendations of the expert panel, they decided to offer vaccine Astrazeneca, the emergency use authorization within the country. “Allowing use of Astrazeneca’s AZD1222 vaccine in Pakistan in emergencies was relatively a simple decision for the expert panel because the vaccine already has been allowed by the EU and other leading health organisations emergency use authorization and supported their recommendations, we also approved it for emergency use in Pakistan,” a top official of the DRAP told The News.
He, however, made it clear that DRAP’s approval has nothing to try to to with the supply of the vaccine in Pakistan, saying they weren't sure when the importer would be ready to procure the consignment of the vaccine as several countries had already pre-purchased many doses of this and other vaccines.
“At the instant , governments are handling one another to urge COVID-19 vaccines so it's impossible that non-public firms would be ready to get a handsome number of doses within the near future. However, it had been mandatory to permit the import of vaccines being deployed across the planet ,” the official added.
Responding to a question , he said currently the expert panel was also watching the info of Chinese vaccine manufacturers including Sinopharm, Cansino whose clinical trials are currently underway and Russian vaccine Sputnik V, which has got to yet to formally apply to DRAP for the vaccine registration or emergency use authorization.
In addition thereto , another Chinese vaccine manufacturer Anhui Zhifei Longcom Biopharmaceutical has also applied for the Phase-III clinical trials of their “recombinant subunit COVID-19 vaccine” in Pakistan, the official said adding that the corporate is getting to recruit 29,000 volunteers across the planet for its vaccine candidate.
“Global trials by Chinese vaccine manufacturer Anhui Zhifei Longcom Biopharmaceutical are expected to be held in Uzbekistan, Indonesia, Pakistan and Ecuador,” the official added.
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