ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s de facto health chief said this week a Phase 3 clinical trial for a potential vaccine being developed by China’s CanSino Biologics was nearly complete and Pakistan would get 20 million doses if the vaccine turned out to be “effective.”
Pakistan’s clinical trial for CanSino’s candidate, Ad5-nCoV, led by the government-run National Institute of Health (NIH) along with pharmaceutical company AJM — the local representative of CanSino — started in September.
FILE PHOTO: Vials of a COVID-19 vaccine candidate, a recombinant adenovirus vaccine named Ad5-nCoV, co-developed by Chinese biopharmaceutical firm CanSino Biologics Inc and a team led by Chinese military infectious disease expert, are pictured in Wuhan, Hubei province, China March 24, 2020. (Reuters/File)
Dr. Faisal Sultan, the health adviser, told reporters on Wednesday the trials, in which 17,500 people had participated, were “near completion.” Pakistan has a population of over 220 million people.
“Their results will come soon,” he told a press conference. “The statistical analysis of the [CanSino] vaccine has started and we expect results at the beginning of February. Pakistan is entitled to 20 million doses on the condition that the vaccine is effective.”
Earlier this month, Sultan said Pakistan was speaking to a number of vaccine makers, and the country could get “in the range of tens of millions” of vaccine doses under an agreement with CanSinoBio.
Earlier this month, AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine was approved for emergency use in Pakistan, making it the first coronavirus vaccine to get the green light for use in the South Asian country.
Sultan also said more than a million doses of Sinopharm’s vaccine from China were expected in in March.
