DRAP board meets today to mull over approval of Chinese vaccine

ISLAMABAD: A meeting of the registration board of the Drug Regulatory Authority Pakistan (DRAP) has been summoned today with approval of a vaccine from China likely on the agenda, ARY News reported on Tuesday.

The DRAP registration board will remain in session until January 14, according to the sources at the Ministry of National Health.

The DRAP will likely to approve registration of China’s Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine in this session, sources said.

Sinopharm had recently sought permission from Pakistan for emergency use of its COVID-19 vaccine in the country.

The Chinese vaccine firm has submitted the data of the clinical trials of its vaccine to the DRAP.

The registration board will likely to approve the vaccine fore emergency use in Pakistan, sources said.

The approval from the Drug Regulatory Authority will allow the use of the Chinese vaccine in Pakistan, sources said.

According to the health ministry sources, Sinopharm’s registration documents were incomplete with technical flaws and the Chinese firm has been asked to submit required documents.

Pakistan has announced to buy 1.2 million doses of the corona vaccine from Sinopharm, a state-run Chinese firm, which is developing two COVID-19 vaccines.

Pakistan is presently in the midst of another spate of infections, as the death toll has past 10,000 mark and overall cases in the country have crossed 500,000 figure.

Pakistan is also running phase III clinical trials of another Chinese vaccine from CanSino Biologics’, led by the National Institute of Health.

According to a report, quoting an official, five companies have applied for a license to distribute the vaccine in Pakistan once approved.