Pakistan successfully manufactures COVID vaccine locally: sources  

ISLAMABAD: In a major achievement, Pakistan has successfully manufactured a COVID vaccine locally at the National Institute of Health (NIH) Islamabad, ARY NEWS reported quoting sources. 

According to sources, overall 124,000 doses of single-dose CanSino vaccine were manufactured at the NIH and would be available for use from the next week.

“The vaccine was prepared by Pakistani experts under the supervision of a Chinese team,” they said adding that the second batch of the vaccine will be prepared solely by the Pakistani experts.

The Chinese team, according to sources, assisted them during the manufacturing process with the raw material provided by the Chinese firm CanSino.

“The quality control division of the NIH is currently examining the locally manufactured COVID vaccine and initial trials have proved it is safe to be administered,” they said adding that the documents pertaining to it will be submitted to the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP).

The National Control Lab for Biologicals of the DRAP will examine the vaccine and give a final approval regarding its use. “The doses will be supplied nationwide soon after receiving DRAP’s approval,” they said.

On May 07, Federal Minister for Planning and Development and head of National Command and Operations Centre (NCOC) Asad Umar claimed that locally-made CanSino vaccine will be available for use by the end of this month (May).

Taking to social networking website, Twitter, Asad Umar said that the first batch of bulk CanSino vaccine was being processed at the National Institute of Health plant set up for this purpose last month.

He maintained that a specially trained team was working on it. “Will inshallah be available for use by end of May after going through rigorous quality control checks,” the minister added.