The Federal Minister for Planning, Development, Reforms & Special Initiatives, Asad Umar, revealed on Tuesday that Pakistan will be receiving the CanSino Biologics COVID-19 vaccine in bulk from China by mid-April.
A tweet by Asad Umar who also heads the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) read:
“We will be getting the bulk vaccine by mid-April from CanSino from which 3 million vaccine doses can be made. The bulk vaccine received will be formulated, sterilized, and packed in Pakistan”.
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“For this purpose special equipment has been procured and manpower is being trained,” he added.
We will be getting bulk vaccine by mid april from cansino from which 3 million vaccine doses can be made. The bulk vaccine recieved will be formulated, sterilized and packed in Pakistan. For this purpose special equipment has been procured and manpower is being trained
— Asad Umar (@Asad_Umar) March 30, 2021
Meanwhile, the minister also stated that Pakistan will receive the first batch of the CanSino vaccine today. He reiterated that it is the same vaccine for which Pakistan had participated in phase 3 trials, ‘which was the first time ever that Pakistan had done so for any vaccine’.
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Note that the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) had authorized the use of CanSino’s vaccine along with China’s Sinopharm vaccine, Russia’s Sputnik-V vaccine, and the Oxford University AstraZeneca vaccine.
While conducting Trials for this vaccine in Pakistan, we should have been smart enough to put in contract that this vaccine would later be produced in Pakistan. Packaging the vaccine is a good start but too small a step!!