National Institute of Health (NIH) is all set to roll out the locally-produced CanSinoBIO’s COVID-19 vaccine.
According to details, NIH, in collaboration with Chinese scientists, has manufactured the first batch of the Chinese vaccine consisting of around 124,000 doses that will be made available soon in local packaging to augment the ongoing mass vaccination drive.
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The next batches of the CanSinoBIO’s COVID-19 vaccine will be produced solely by the NIH. NIH had started the local manufacturing of the Chinese vaccine after its raw material reached Pakistan earlier this month.
National Control Lab for Biologicals of Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) is also expected to examine the locally manufactured Chinese vaccine this week and grant the final approval for its use in the country.
Earlier this year in February, DRAP had granted Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) to CanSinoBIO’s COVID-19 vaccine.
Known as Ad5-nCoV, CanSinoBIO developed the Coronavirus vaccine in collaboration with the Beijing Institute of Biotechnology and tested it in large-scale phase-III clinical trials that were held in five countries, including Pakistan, in which more than 40,000 volunteers participated.
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Results of trials were published in February this year which confirmed that the CanSinoBIO vaccine was 65% effective at preventing symptomatic cases and 91% effective at preventing severe infection.
As for the Pakistani subset, the vaccine offered 75% protection against symptomatic cases and 100% protection against severe infection.
No serious safety concerns and side-effects of the CanSinoBIO vaccine were reported during the multination clinical trials as well.
