National Institute of Health (NIH) is mulling over changing the name of PakVac, Pakistan’s first locally-packaged single-dose COVID-19 vaccine, to CanSinoBIO.
A senior official at the NIH, on the condition of anonymity, disclosed that “there has been a change of mind and the country’s first locally-produced vaccine would be called CanSinoBIO as the Chinese are sensitive about the names of their products.”
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PakVac is being manufactured at the NIH with the help of a Chinese medical firm, CanSino Biologics. NIH had started the local manufacturing of the vaccine after its raw material reached Pakistan from China earlier this month.
So far, 124,000 doses of CanSinoBIO’s COVID-19 vaccine have been prepared at the NIH, of which 500 doses have been packaged under the name PakVac. The remaining doses of the NIH-made vaccine will now be packed with CanSinoBIO’s branding.
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NIH will manufacture 3 million doses of PakVac per month which will significantly reduce Pakistan’s dependence on imported COVID-19 vaccines.
Yesterday, SAPM on Health, Dr. Faisal Sultan, congratulated NIH for indigenously manufacturing the COVID-19 vaccine originally developed by a Chinese firm, CanSinoBIO, adding that PakVac passed the internal QA testing and will soon be available for the public.
