Chinese Covid-19 vaccine: Phase-III trials to begin in 10 days' time: Asad Umar

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Planning and Development Asad Umar said on Saturday that Pakistan was all set to participate in the Phase-III trials of a Chinese-developed coronavirus vaccine.

Taking to Twitter, the head of the National Command and Operations Centre (NCOC), Asad Umar, said, "Pakistan will be participating in phase 3 trials of a Chinese developed vaccine for coronavirus. The trials in Pakistan will Insha Allah start in about 10 days' time."

It is pertinent to mention here that Pakistan's first Phase-III clinical trial for CanSino's candidate, Ad5-nCoV, will be led by the government-run National Institute of Health (NIH) along with a pharmaceutical company, AJM, the local representative of CanSino.

An NIH spokesman said that the Pakistan Health Research Council (PHRC) had also approved the clinical study, to be carried out in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad.

The daily positive cases in Pakistan peaked at more than 6,000 in June but have since fallen sharply.