120,000 doses of PakVac ready for use

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Tuesday inaugurated an antisera processing plant and launched 120,000 doses of PakVac produced from the concentrate of Cansino vaccine while the World Health Organisation (WHO) validated the emergency use of Sinovac vaccine.

Meanwhile, the country reported the lowest positivity rate since March 1 this year.

While the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (Drap) registered Pfizer vaccine that had recently reached Pakistan, the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) announced the arrival of another 500,000 doses of Sinopharm vaccine.

The launching ceremony of PakVac was held at the National Institute of Health (NIH) which was attended by Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Asad Umar, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Health Dr Faisal Sultan, NIH Executive Director Maj Gen Prof Aamer Ikram and Chinese Ambassador Nong Rong.

Briefing the participants of the ceremony, Prof Aamer Ikram said 120,000 doses were ready for use and the concentrate to produce 900,000 more doses had been procured. “We held a clinical trial with CanSinoBio in Pakistan and also made an agreement with it for technology transfer. We have been aiming to produce as many as three million doses every month as well as the raw material in future,” he added.

Replying to a question, Prof Ikram said three million doses meant that three million people would be fully inoculated every month as PakVac was a single-dose vaccine.

Speaking at the ceremony, Ambassador Nong Rong said China had cooperated with Pakistan to win the war against the pandemic as his country wanted to eradicate the disease from across the globe. “Pakistan was the first country whom China gifted the vaccine and it remained on our priority list,” he added.

Dr Faisal Sultan said there was a saying that ‘for every problem, there is a solution. “It is not easy to produce vaccine from raw material. We worked hard for quality assurance and within a few years we will be able to manufacture vaccines on our own,” he added.

Asad Umar said diseases were not confined to borders or religion, which was why the NCOC had been set up to devise a collective strategy. “Though the number of cases has reduced, the forum has not stopped its efforts to control the spread of the virus. I urge people to get vaccinated at the earliest,” he added.