Pakistan approves AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – The COVID-19 vaccine for AstraZeneca has been approved for emergency use in Pakistan, the health minister said on Saturday and is the first coronavirus vaccine to receive the green light for use in the South Asian country.

Pakistan, which is seeing an increasing number of coronavirus infections, said the vaccines are sourced from various sources.

“DRAP has authorized emergency use of AstraZeneca’s COVID vaccine,” Health Minister Faisal Sultan told Reuters.

Approval has been granted to get more than a million doses of Sinopharm’s vaccine from China, he said.

“We are in the process of acquiring Western origin and other vaccines, both through bilateral purchase agreements and through the COVAX facility,” he said.

The Chinese vaccine is awaiting approval from the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP), which has received and reviewed its data.

Pakistan is talking to a number of vaccine manufacturers, and Sultan said the country could receive tens of millions of vaccine doses under an agreement with China’s CanSinoBio.

The vaccine company’s Ad5-nCoV COVID-19 candidate is nearing completion of Phase III clinical trials in Pakistan.

Efficiency is an important factor, Sultan said. “We have and are watching the evolving stories about the efficacy of a number of vaccines.”

Sultan said the preliminary results of the Cansino could come in by mid-February. He added that Pakistan was considering getting involved with the Russian Sputnik V vaccine.

Pakistan on Friday reported 2,322 new coronavirus infections and 45 deaths, bringing the total number of cases to more than 516,000 and deaths nearly 11,000.

“Our goal is that the majority of the population will be covered for free,” the minister said, adding that private sectors could also be admitted once an authorized company is available.

Sultan added that Pakistan has sufficient cold chain facilities for most types of vaccines.