COVID-19 vaccine shows promising results during clinical trial in Pakistan   

ISLAMABAD: In a major development, it has emerged that a COVID-19 vaccine undergoing the third phase of a clinical trial in Pakistan has shown promising results, ARY NEWS reported on Friday.

According to details, the vaccine that is undergoing the third phase of a clinical trial in Pakistan has shown positive results with 95 percent recovery rate of the patients who were about to be shifted on a ventilator.

It further emerged that the vaccine also proved useful for the patients who were shifted on the ventilator as 60 percent of them recovered after its dose.

The concerned institution that is supervising the entire clinical trial process of the vaccine is likely to announce its preparation during the ongoing month after the successful trial.

It is pertinent to mention here that Planning and Development Minister Asad Umar announced on September 22 the launch of phase III human clinical trials of a Chinese vaccine for Covid-19.

In a Twitter post, he said the potential Covid-19 vaccine has been developed by a Chinese firm. “A total of 40,000 people will participate in this trial in 7 countries, of which 8 to 10, 000 will be Pakistani,” he said.

“Initial results [are] expected in 4 to 6 months.”

Pakistan’s first Phase 3 clinical trial for CanSino’s candidate, Ad5-nCoV, is led by the government-run National Institute of Health (NIH) along with pharmaceutical company AJM – the local representative of CanSino.

The Ad5-nCoV trial planned to recruit around 8,000 volunteers, most of whom are health workers, recruited over a four-month period and be followed for 12 months after receiving the vaccine or placebo.