The Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (Drap) has yesterday approved the Oxford University AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine for emergency use in Pakistan, this has made this vaccine to be first one to be locally approved in Pakistan.
As stated by Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Healh Dr Faisal Sultan, “Drap granted emergency use authorisation to AstraZeneca’s Covid vaccine,”
AstraZeneca had stated earlier in 2020 that their vaccine will prove to be up to 90%effective. This vaccine has already received approval and have been deployed in other countries as well such as the United Kingdom and India.
Researchers stated a procedure of a half dose after which there will be a full dose booster has been seen to be 90 per cent in effect in the prevention against Covid-19 on the other hand two full doses has proved to be 62pc. No severe safety happenings were confirmed, the company clarified.
As stated by Dr Faisal, Pakistan has made a pre-booking for over a million doses of Sinopharm’s vaccine from China ,moreover the Sinopharm vaccine will be further in use once it gets an approval from the DRAP, which has received and gone through its data. Chinese health authorities said that its efficacy rate was proclaimed at 79.3pc .
He said: “We are in the process to obtain Western origin and other vaccines both via bilateral purchase agreements as well as via the Covax facility, We have and are watching the evolving stories around efficacy of a number of vaccines.
