ISLAMABAD: The Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) has approved the emergency use of the Chinese COVID-19 vaccine from CanSino Biologics.
Pakistan is the second country to approve CanSinoBIO’s vaccine, as a day ago, Mexico had also approved it. Clinical trials for CanSinoBIO’s vaccine were already going on in different countries, including Pakistan.
Sources from the government said the registration board of the regulatory authority has greenlighted the manufacturer’s COVID-19 vaccine which comprises a single dose.
A request for the approval of the vaccine for emergency use was submitted to DRAP’s registration board by AJM Pharma (Pvt) Limited, the sources said, adding that the decision to approve it was taken during the third meeting of the authority’s registration board.
Earlier, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Health Dr Faisal Sultan had announced that China’s CanSinoBIO COVID-19 vaccine is nearly 75% effective against the virus in Pakistan.
On a social media website Twitter, Dr Faisal had said that according to the vaccine’s phase-three trial data, it has turned out to be 74.8% effective against the virus, while it also showed 100% effectiveness in preventing severe disease.
Citing the Independent Data Monitoring Committee’s report, the special assistant said that in multiple countries, the vaccine was 65.7% and 90.98% effective in preventing symptomatic cases and severe diseases, respectively.
In the Pakistani subset, efficacy at preventing symptomatic cases is 74.8% & 100% at preventing severe disease.
The IDMC didn't report any serious safety concerns. Data incld 30,000 participants & 101 virologically confmd COVID cases
Well done Pak team for conducting this trial
— Faisal Sultan (@fslsltn) February 8, 2021
Earlier this month, China’s CanSino Biologics had said that an independent committee found the drugmaker’s COVID-19 vaccine met its pre-specified primary safety and efficacy targets under an interim analysis of Phase-three trial data.
No adverse events related to the vaccine have occurred and the findings of the IDMC mean the company could go ahead with advancing its Phase-three clinical trial for the candidate, known as Ad5-nCoV or Convidecia, CanSinoBio said.
Pakistan has approved two coronavirus vaccines – AstraZeneca and Sinopharm — while the vaccination drive kicked off last week across the country. Pakistan administered the vaccine in three phases, starting with front-line healthcare workers.
According to the National Command and Control Center, the total number of deaths from coronavirus in Pakistan has reached 12,218 while the total number of affected people has reached 560,363. In the country, 518,164 people have recovered from coronavirus and the number of patients under treatment is 29,981.
The highest number of deaths due to coronavirus was in Punjab where 4,994 people lost their lives while 4,183 in Sindh, 1,980 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 483 in Islamabad, 102 in Gilgit-Baltistan, 197 in Balochistan and 279 people have lost their lives in Azad Kashmir.
