ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has successfully produced a COVID-19 vaccine locally at the National Institute of Health (NIH) Islamabad, sources claimed on Sunday.
“The vaccine was prepared by Pakistani experts under the supervision of a Chinese team,” sources said, adding that the second batch of the vaccine will be prepared solely by the Pakistani experts.
Overall 124,000 doses of single-dose CanSino vaccine were manufactured and would be available for use from the next week. The Chinese team assisted them during the manufacturing process with the raw material provided by the firm CanSino.
“The quality control division of the NIH is currently examining the locally manufactured COVID vaccine and initial trials have proved it is safe to be administered,” they said adding that the documents pertaining to it will be submitted to the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP).
Earlier it was reported that a local pharmaceutical company had signed a deal with a Chinese giant that allowed it to supply and produce a COVID-19 vaccine in Pakistan.
In a letter to the Pakistan Stock Exchange, Searle Company Limited said it had finalized an agreement with China’s Livzon Mapharm Inc. to manufacture a novel coronavirus vaccine – V-01 – in Pakistan.
On May 07, Federal Minister for Planning and Development and head of National Command and Operations Centre (NCOC) Asad Umar claimed that locally-made CanSino vaccine will be available for use by the end of this month (May).
In a statement, Asad Umar said that the first batch of bulk CanSino vaccine was being processed at the National Institute of Health plant set up for this purpose last month.
He maintained that a specially trained team was working on it. “Will be available for use by end of May after going through rigorous quality control checks,” the minister added.
