The Pakistan health minister Faisal Sultan said on Tuesday said that Russia's Sputnik-V has become the third COVID-19 vaccine to be approved by Pakistan for emergency use after China's Sinopharm and the one developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University, Pakistan has become the 22nd country to approve Sputnik V, the Russian Direct Investment Fund, responsible for marketing the vaccine abroad, he said.
Sputnik has received emergency use authorization. It is to be administered in two shots, three weeks apart, has a six-month shelf life and is stored at -18 Celsius, according to a document on the vaccine's authorization. The authorization to M/s AGP Ltd, Karachi, is valid until April 1, 2021, the document said, adding it was for immunization of those aged 18 and over.
A fourth vaccine candidate, developed by CanSino Biologics Inc, has also completed clinical trials in the South Asian nation of 220 million people, showing 65.7percent efficacy in symptomatic cases and a 90.98percent success rate in severe cases in an interim analysis of global trials, Sultan said on Monday.
He said its efficacy in the Pakistani subset at preventing symptomatic cases was 74.8percent. It was 100percent for preventing severe disease. CanSinoBio's single-dose regimen and normal refrigerator storage requirement could make it a favorable option for many countries.
AJ Pharma led CanSinoBIO's trial to import the vaccine vials initially before filling them in Pakistan, the first company to do so locally. Sultan said Pakistan could get shots "in the range of tens of millions" under an agreement with the Chinese firm.
Pakistan has launched its vaccination drive with 500,000 doses of Sinopharm donated by longtime ally China, giving shots to frontline health workers as a priority. Pakistan has also secured 17 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine under a global scheme to deliver coronavirus treatments to developing nations.
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