‘PakVac’ – Pakistan’s first ever COVID-19 vaccine ready for use

ISLAMABAD – Pakistan has locally manufactured doses of vaccine against COVID-19 with the help of China’s CanSino Biologics after raw material was received by Islamabad last month.

The announcement was made by Special Assistant to PM on Health Dr Faisal Sultan, who also said that the vaccine named ‘PakVac’ has passed rigorous testing.

“Congratulations to the NIH Pak team and its leadership for successful fill/finish (from concentrate) of the Cansino vaccine with the help of Cansino Bio Inc China,” tweeted Sultan on Monday night.

Congratulations to the NIH Pak team and its leadership for successful fill/finish (from concentrate) of the Cansino vaccine with the help of Cansino Bio Inc. China. The product has passed the rigorous internal QA testing. An imp step to help in our vaccine supply line pic.twitter.com/hrkySTJxPX

— Faisal Sultan (@fslsltn) May 24, 2021

He added, “The product has passed rigorous internal QA testing. An imp step to help in our vaccine supply line”.

In early May, the formulation and packaging of the Cansino Bio vaccine Convidecia started in Pakistan after receiving the raw material from China.

On May 8, Federal Planning Minister Asad Umar had said that the first batch of locally formulated vaccines would be available for use by the end of May.

The Cansino’s vaccine, during trials in Pakistan, showed an efficacy of 74.8% at preventing symptomatic COVID-19 cases and 100% for preventing severe disease.