National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) has secured 13 million doses of the mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer, in collaboration with BioNTech, directly from the company.
NDMA had been negotiating with Pfizer for the last couple of months and the New York-based pharmaceutical company recently announced that a bilateral agreement has been reached.
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According to details, the first batch of the directly acquired Pfizer vaccine will reach the country in July or August to augment the ongoing mass vaccination campaign.
Last month, Pakistan received the first shipment comprising 106,000 doses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine through COVAX, a global initiative aimed at equitable access to Coronavirus vaccines led by GAVI.
Initially, Hajj and Umrah pilgrims, overseas Pakistani workers and students, and immunocompromised individuals were on the Health Ministry’s priority list for Pfizer’s vaccine.
However, the pilgrims were removed from the list after Saudi Arabia announced a limited Hajj that will include only 60,000 Saudi residents.
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Overseas Pakistani workers and students were removed from the list due to a special clause in the agreement with COVAX which restricted the Health Ministry to limit the use of Pfizer’s vaccine to only people with weak immune systems.
Since NDMA has now directly procured 13 million doses from Pfizer, it is expected that the Health Ministry will announce its use among all groups.
