ISLAMABAD: Federal Planning and Development Minister Asad Umar has announced that provinces and private entities were free to import anti-coronavirus vaccines approved by the Drug Regulatory Authority Pakistan (DRAP).
The National Command and Operations Centre (NCOC) chief made the statement in an interview with a local news channel. “From day 1, the NCOC has adopted the policy that the federal government shall not have the monopoly to import COVID-19 vaccine,” he added.
“Once a vaccine has been approved by the regulatory authority, it can be imported by provinces as well as private hospitals,” he explained, adding, “In fact, I would encourage not only Sindh but other provincial governments to import it as well.”
Umar further said that once the AstraZeneca vaccine was approved by the regulatory authority, it may be imported by the Sindh government if the latter could procure supplies from abroad.
The NCOC chief also said that the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine has already been approved by DRAP and China’s Sinopharm was also approved in principle by a technical committee.
“We only need to decide under which name will Sinopharm vaccine be distributed. The verdict will be out by Tuesday,” the minister announced. He informed that at the moment there were two COVID-19 vaccines authorised for emergency use while phase III clinical trials of the third vaccine by CanSino will be completed in February.
“Once the results for the CanSino vaccine are out, and if they are positive, then that anti-dote too will be available in Pakistan,” he informed.
He pointed out that Pakistan had also signed up for the World Health Organization’s COVAX Facility some eight months back and was expecting the first consignment in the first quarter of this year.
“We have multiple sources for the anti-coronavirus vaccines slated for delivery in February-March. So the vaccines will be procured and rolled out in the first quarter of this year,” he concluded.
