Pakistan approves Chinese Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine

Pakistan’s DRAP approves second coronavirus vaccine after AstraZeneca

Pakistan has approved the Chinese Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use, two days after the country authorized the emergency use of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine.

The Drug Regulatory Authority Pakistan (DRAP) said the SinoPharm vaccine had been given emergency use approval after being evaluated for safety and quality.. “The two COVID-19 vaccines have been granted EUA with certain conditions,” DRAP’s spokesman said.

COVID-19 vaccine trial in Pakistan

Pakistan is also expected to receive tens of millions of coronavirus vaccine doses under an agreement with China’s Cansino Biologics Inc.

Cansino’s Ad5-nCoV COVID-19 vaccine, developed by CanSinoBio and Beijing Institute of Biotechnology China, is nearing completion of Phase III clinical trials at Shifa International Hospital in Islamabad as well as four other centers in Pakistan.

Pakistan has reported 523,011 cases and 11,055 deaths from COVID-19, according to official statistics. Nearly 476,471 of 91 percent people have recovered from the virus.