Pakistan to produce coronavirus vaccine at home

NIH will produce about three million doses a month initially with the help of CanSino

Pakistan’s National Institute of Health (NIH) will start producing a coronavirus vaccine at home, known as PakVac, with the help of CanSinoBio, a Chinese vaccine maker. NIH hopes to produce about three million doses of the vaccine each month.

Prime Minister’s Special Assistant on Health Dr. Faisal Sultan said that the vaccine has been tested extensively and is safe for use. The homemade vaccine will help in cutting the cost and also reduce the time needed to acquire it from overseas.

“Pakistan has started production of China’s single-dose COVID-19 vaccine CanSino at National Institute of Health (NIH) plant. This facility will produce 3 million doses/month and as a result, significantly reduce Pakistan’s dependence on importing vaccine from other countries,” a Government of Pakistan tweet read.

At least 120,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine had been packed and are expected to be available for the masses by the end of the current month.

However, some reservations were reported on the use of the name PakVac on the first batch, which would be changed to CansinoBio, sources said.

Close to one million people in Pakistan have tested positive for the virus thus far. About 20,000 people have lost their lives to COVID-19 as well.

The vaccination drive from the government has garnered a lot of interest with nearly six million doses already administered. It is hoped that with the production of the vaccine at home, more and more people can be vaccinated at the earliest and the pandemic can be controlled.