Pakistan all set to roll out locally-made ‘PakVac’ Covid vaccine

ISLAMABAD: In a major achievement, the state-run National Institute of Health has locally produced the first batch of China’s single-dose Covid-19 vaccine Cansino.

According to NIH, the first batch of China’s single-dose CanSino COVID-19 vaccine would be available for administration to the citizens by the end of this month.

A total of 124,000 CanSino jabs have been developed with China’s support and they would be rolled out in local packaging.

The locally-made Covid-19 Chinese vaccine was given the ‘PakVac’ name.

Taking to Twitter, the SAPM on Health Dr Faisal Sultan congratulated the NIH Pak team and its leadership for “successful fill/finish (from concentrate) of the CansSno vaccine.”

“Congratulations to the NIH Pak team and its leadership for successful fill/finish (from concentrate) of the Cansino vaccine with the help of Cansino Bio Inc.”

Congratulations to the NIH Pak team and its leadership for successful fill/finish (from concentrate) of the Cansino vaccine with the help of Cansino Bio Inc. China. The product has passed the rigorous internal QA testing. An imp step to help in our vaccine supply line pic.twitter.com/hrkySTJxPX

— Faisal Sultan (@fslsltn) May 24, 2021

“The product has passed the rigorous internal QA testing. An imp step to help in our vaccine supply line,” he added.

According to an official of the ministry, the first batch of bulk CanSino vaccine was being processed at the National Institute of Health’s (NIH) plant, which was set up for this purpose last month.

The National Control Lab for Biologicals of the DRAP will examine the vaccine and give a final approval regarding its use in the coming days.

The National Institute of Health would be able to produce three million doses per month which would significantly reduce the country’s dependence on other countries.

Pakistan has so far received over 13 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines comprising of Sinopharm, Sinovac and CanSino procured from China including others through the COVAX programme.

Pakistan is already vaccinating its population of over 30-years and older citizens. The government had planned to vaccinate 70 million population by the end of the year 2021.