The government has approved China’s CanSinoBio Covid-19 vaccine for emergency use in Pakistan, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) on Health Dr Faisal Sultan said on Friday.
“Yes, Correct,” Sultan texted Reuters after being asked to confirm that the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) had met and approved the vaccine.
DRAP has already approved three other vaccines for use in Pakistan — China’s Sinopharm, Russia’s Sputnik-V and the Oxford University-AstraZeneca vaccine.
CanSinoBIO last week released interim efficacy results of a multi-country trial, which included Pakistan, showing 65.7 per cent efficacy in preventing symptomatic coronavirus cases and a 90.98pc success rate in stopping severe infections.
In the Pakistani subset, the efficacy of the vaccine at preventing symptomatic cases was 74.8pc and 100pc at preventing severe disease.
Although Covid-19 vaccines from Chinese developers have shown lower protection rates than some Western ones, and no detailed study results are publicly available yet, they have already been approved in several developing countries battling a surge in coronavirus infections.
Besides Pakistan, the CanSinoBIO vaccine is being tested in Mexico, Russia, Argentina and Chile, according to clinical trial registration data, and the company has supply deals with some of those countries, including Mexico.
SAPM Faisal had said that Pakistan could receive “in the range of tens of millions” of the vaccine under an agreement with the Chinese firm. On another occasion he said the country is entitled to receive 20 million doses of CanSino’s vaccine, “provided the results are positive and the vaccine proves to be effective”.
Hassan Abbas, head of the CanSinoBIO trial at AJ Pharma in Pakistan, earlier said it had already applied to the government for permission to import the vaccine.
“The initial set of vaccines will come in vials already filled, but we hope in the future to get them in the form of concentrates from CanSino, and do the filling here in Pakistan,” he told Reuters.
No serious safety concerns were raised in the study, Sultan said.
SINGLE-DOSE REGIMEN:
While the vaccine’s protection rate trails the more than 90pc efficacy of shots developed by Pfizer Inc and its partner BioNTech SE and Moderna Inc, its single-dose regimen and normal refrigerator storage requirement could make it a favourable option for many countries.
CanSinoBIO’s vaccine — which was approved for use in the Chinese military last year and has since been given to at least 40,000-50,000 people — uses a modified common cold virus known as adenovirus type-5 (Ad5) to carry genetic material from the coronavirus protein into the body.
However, researchers in an early and mid-stage trial report expressed concern the vaccine may not work in those previously exposed to Ad5, as the pre-existing antibody against the common cold virus could weaken the vaccine-triggered immune response.
CanSinoBIO is also testing a two-dose regimen of the vaccine in China including on participants aged between six and 17 and older than 55.
Shots from Chinese companies Sinovac and state-backed Sinopharm have shown efficacy of between 50pc and 91pc.
The three firms have applied to join the global vaccine sharing scheme Covax for approval and China plans to provide 10m doses to the initiative, which is backed by the World Health Organisation and GAVI vaccine alliance.
ZF2001 TRAILS FROM NEXT WEEK:
The University of Health Sciences (UHS) in Lahore has approved holding a phase-III trial of ZF2001, another Chinese recombinant coronavirus vaccine, from next week.
UHS Vice-Chancellor Professor Javed Akram has said that after the trial’s approval from the DRAP, the recruitment of volunteers will start. He said that 1,000 volunteers would be registered for the trial. Every volunteer will be given three doses of the jab in three months. They will have to visit the trial site seven times in these three months, he added.
He maintained that Rs16,000 will be paid for travel and food expenses. The trial will be completed in 18 months, he added.
He said its efficacy in the Pakistani subset at preventing symptomatic cases is 74.8 per cent, adding it is 100 per cent for preventing severe disease.
The VC said the National Bio-Ethics Committee had approved a phase-III randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of ZF2001 in people over 18 years of age. A double-blind study is one in which neither the participants nor the experimenters know who is receiving a particular treatment. The procedure prevents bias in research results.
ZF2001, trade-named RBD-Dimer, is a Covid-19 vaccine candidate developed by Anhui Zhifei Longcom in collaboration with the Institute of Microbiology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. As of December 2020, the vaccine candidate was in Phase-III trials with 29,000 participants in China, Ecuador, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Uzbekistan.
If the trials are successful, the company plans to make 300 million doses of the vaccine each year.
33 LOSE BATTLE AGAINST COVID:
The coronavirus claimed 33 more lives during the last 24 hours, surging the overall death toll to 12,218, said the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) on Friday.
According to the latest statistics, 1,270 fresh infections were reported during the aforementioned period, lifting up the national tally of cases to 560,363. As many as 1,481 patients recovered from the virus during the last 24 hours, while 518,164 people have recovered from the deadly disease so far.
Around 1,743 patients were stated to be in critical condition. The total count of active cases is 29,981 and the positivity rate stands at 3.59oc. A total of 35,280 tests were conducted across the country during the last 24 hours, while 8,360,823 samples have been tested so far.
Sindh reported 371 new coronavirus cases during the past 24 hours, taking the tally to 253,089. According to Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, 16 more patients succumbed to the lethal virus as the death toll jumped to 4,199. As many as 4,939 more patients recovered, taking the total to 234,584.
According to the Punjab healthcare department, the death toll from coronavirus reached 4,994 after the province recorded 12 more fatalities. Punjab also recorded another 484 cases, taking the provincial tally for confirmed cases to 162,875. A total of 150,638 people have recovered from the virus in the province so far.
Meanwhile, another doctor in Karachi succumbed to coronavirus on Friday. Professor Asadullah, the former head of the surgeries department of the Jinnah Hospital breathed his last while battling with the deadly virus, confirmed Director Jinnah Hospital, Dr Semi Jamali. She paid rich tributes to the deceased doctor for his services in the health sector.
Last month, Dr Saleh Soomro had lost his life to Covid-19 in Karachi.
