Pakistan to buy 1.2 million COVID-19 vaccine doses from China’s Sinopharm

Pakistan announced to procure COVID-19 vaccine doses from Sinopharm after China authorized its use

Pakistan will buy 1.2 million COVID-19 vaccine doses from China’s Sinopharm, Pakistanis health officials have confirmed.

The development came after China approved the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Beijing Biological Products Institute Co. for general public use. The Sinopharm vaccine is 79.34 percent effective, according to the company.

“The Cabinet Committee has decided to initially purchase 1.2 million doses of the vaccine from the Chinese company Sinopharm, which will be provided free of cost to frontline workers in the first quarter of 2021,” Minister for Science and Technology Chaudhry Fawad Hussain said on Twitter. He also said that Pakistani private companies will be allowed to import the vaccine.

Planning and Development Minister Asad Umar announced that a cabinet committee had authorized the procurement of over 1 million vaccines from Chinese-owned Sinopharm to “first vaccinate the frontline healthcare workers.” The procurement was, however, pending approval by the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan.

Sinopharm Vaccine

• Sinopharm vaccine is developed by Beijing Biological Products Institute Co., after China approved the COVID-19 vaccine for the public. 

• China plans to vaccinate 50 million people ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday in February. 

• The approval followed an announcement that Sinopharm’s phase 3 trials had found the vaccine to be 79 per cent effective while Sinopharm trials conducted in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) reported 86 per cent efficacy.

• China will produce 610 million doses by the end of the year and expects to make more than one billion doses next year. 

Meanwhile, another Chinese vaccine, Sinovac, which is developed by a private Beijing-based vaccine maker, has also produced millions of doses and sent shipments of more than a million doses to Brazil and Indonesia each and three million to Turkey which ordered 50 million doses of the vaccine.