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(Adds details on other vaccines, background)
By Asif Shahzad
ISLAMABAD, Jan 16 (Reuters) - AstraZeneca's COVID-19
vaccine has been approved for emergency use in Pakistan, the
health minister said on Saturday, making it the first
coronavirus vaccine to get the green light for use in the South
Asian country.
Pakistan, which is seeing rising numbers of coronavirus
infections, said its vaccines would be procured from multiple
sources.
"DRAP granted emergency use authorisation to AstraZeneca's
COVID vaccine," the health minister, Faisal Sultan, told
Reuters.
Approval has been given to get more than a million doses of
Sinopharm's vaccine from China, he said.
"We are in the process to obtain Western origin and other
vaccines both via bilateral purchase agreements as well as via
the COVAX facility," he said.
The Chinese vaccine is awaiting approval from the Drug
Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP), which has received and
reviewed its data.
Pakistan is speaking to a number of vaccine makers, and
Sultan said the country could get "in the range of tens of
millions" of vaccine doses under an agreement with China's
CanSinoBio.
The vaccine company's Ad5-nCoV COVID-19 candidate is nearing
completion of Phase III clinical trials in Pakistan.
Efficacy is a key factor, said Sultan. "We have and are
watching the evolving stories around efficacy of a number of
vaccines."
Sultan said preliminary results of the Cansino may come in
by mid-February. He added that Pakistan was considering to
engage with Russia's Sputnik V vaccine.
Pakistan reported 2,432 new coronavirus infections and 45
deaths on Friday, taking the total number of cases to more than
516,000 and deaths close to 11,000.
"Our aim is that the bulk of the population will be covered
free," the minister said, adding that private sectors could also
be allowed once supply was available to an authorized company.
Sultan added that Pakistan had adequate cold chain
facilities for most kinds of vaccines.
(Reporting by Asif Shahzad;
Writing by Gibran Peshimam; Editing by Louise Heavens
Editing by Kirsten Donovan, Helen Popper and Louise Heavens)
