Pakistan has yet to place final order for vaccine procurement: report

Even though the government has promised Pakistanis a vaccine in the first quarter of this year, the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has failed to place a final order to acquire the much-needed vaccine to inoculate at least 100 million people.

According to a media outlet, the country was striving to get its first batch of the vaccine doses, as not a single pharma company has accepted Pakistan’s request to deliver the order.

PM’s aide on health Dr Faisal Sultan was quoted by The News saying that Pakistan has yet to place a final order and strike a deal with a manufacturer.

“Although, we are striving hard to get the first batch of COVID-19 vaccine at the earliest for our frontline workers and others the final order has not yet been placed and accepted (by any vaccine manufacturer),” he reportedly said.

China’s Sinopharm, whose vaccine is apparently 50 per cent effective, has submitted its data with the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) and the health authorities are still in the process of reaching an agreement with the company, it added.

Pakistan is also interested in Russian vaccine Sputnik V, Dr Sultan said, adding that negotiations are underway with Astrazeneca’s manufacturer. “We are trying to get AstraZeneca vaccine both through the Covax facility and through direct procurement,” he added.

Earlier this month, Russia approached Pakistan with a vaccine offer. It wrote a letter to Pakistan asking for details of the process of vaccine registration as well as the demand in the country for the batch of dozes.

In the letter addressed to Special Assistant to Prime Minister Dr Faisal Sultan, the Russian Direct Investment Fund’s (RDIF) Head, Kirill Dmitriev has said that the Sputnik-V had an emergency use certificate and it was 91.4% effective.

On Dec 31, it was reported that the government had decided to purchase 1.2million doses of a Chinese vaccine, Sinopharm, amid a worsening coronavirus outbreak across the world.

Pakistan has planned to vaccinate its population in three phases: in the first phase, frontline health workers will be inoculated; the second phase will be focused on the elderly; the third phase will be for the general populace.

According to DW, it can take several years to develop an effective and safe vaccine. On average, it takes between 10 and 12 years, but it can take longer. The search for a vaccine against HIV has been going since the early 1980s — so far without success.

In the case of COVID-19, researchers are racing to shorten the time it usually takes because of the ongoing pandemic. Despite the pressure that that brings, vaccine developers, manufacturers and the World Health Organization (WHO) say there will be no compromises on safety.