China’s CanSino vaccine to be made in Pakistan soon through ‘technology transfer’ — media

Medical attendants prepare to vaccinate health workers with Chinese-made Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccine at a vaccination centre in Karachi, Pakistan, on February 3, 2021. (AFP/File)

• Pharma company AGP says company would begin receiving shipments of CanSino vaccine this week for commercial sale
• CanSino vaccine to be brought in bulk in Pakistan and from next month packed at plant at National Institute of Health, AGP says

ISLAMABAD: A representative of Pakistani private pharmaceutical company AGP Limited has said China’s CanSino Biologics coronavirus vaccine would be brought in bulk in Pakistan and from next month would be packed at a filling plant at the National Institute of Health, Pakistan media reported on Tuesday, adding that the country would soon start manufacturing the vaccine itself through ‘technology transfer’ from China. 
On Monday, an AGP official told media the company would begin receiving shipments of China’s CanSino Biologics COVID-19 vaccine this week for commercial sale.
“It will reduce the price of the vaccine by up to 30pc (around Rs3,000),” technical Adviser to AGM Pharma, Dr. Hassan Abbas Zaheer, told Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper, referring to the vaccine being packed at the NIH in the future. “At a later stage, it will be manufactured in Pakistan through transfer of technology. This has been made possible because the clinical trial of Cansino was held in Pakistan.”
Zaheer said though Pakistan was a vaccine insecure country currently, “soon it would become a secure country as vaccine production would begin here and dependence on other nations would end.”
“The vaccine will be manufactured under a public-private partnership project,” Zaheer added. “Currently India’s vaccine manufacturing industry is worth $5 billion. Pakistan can also start producing a number of vaccines including Covid-19.”
Pakistan, one of the first countries in the world to allow private imports of COVID-19 vaccines, last week received a batch of the Russian Sputnik vaccine. The batch has been imported by AGP which is working with the government to set a price cap for privately imported vaccines before it can use the doses for commercial sale.