ISLAMABAD: UK-Swedish pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca has sought approval for its vaccine from Pakistan after China’s Sinopharm.
According to sources, AstraZeneca has applied for registration to the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) through a Pakistani pharmaceutical company. The pharma company has submitted data of the clinical trials of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine to the DRAP, as per the sources.
The DRAP registration board is expected to register the AstraZeneca vaccine in its ongoing session, according to sources. The registration board will remain in session until tomorrow, as per the sources from the Ministry of National Health.
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The vaccine, approved by the British Medicine and Healthcare Products Regulatory Authority, is said to be effective for people of all age groups and could be stored in home refrigerators. The DRAP registration board in its current session would likely approve the registration of China’s Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine.
Sinopharm had recently sought permission from Pakistan for the emergency use of its COVID-19 vaccine in the country. Pakistan has announced to buy 1.2 million doses of the corona vaccine from Sinopharm, a state-run Chinese firm, which is developing two COVID-19 vaccines.
