Sinopharm seeks approval from Pakistan for its COVID-19 vaccine

ISLAMABAD: China’s Sinopharm has sought permission from Pakistan for emergency use of its COVID-19 vaccine in the country, quoting sources ARY News reported on Sunday.

Sinopharm has applied for registration of its coronavirus vaccine to the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP), sources said.

The Chinese vaccine firm has submitted the complete data of the clinical trials of its vaccine to the authority, sources at DRAP said.

A session of the DRAP registration board is expected to be held the next week, the sources at the health ministry said.

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, according to sources.

Earlier, Pakistan had announced to purchase 1.2 million doses of the corona vaccine from China.

Sinopharm, a state-run Chinese firm, 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 infections in the country have crossed 500,000 figure.

Pakistan is 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.