COVID-19: China's CanSino to offer Pakistan 20 million doses

Chinese vaccine maker CanSino Biologics has offered 20 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine to Pakistan, Bloomberg reported on Friday.

The vaccine maker will be giving Pakistan preferential access and pricing, Bloomberg quoted Hasan Abbas Zaheer, technical adviser at AJM Pharma Pvt.

It has already applied with Pakistan’s drug regulator (Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan) to get approval.

The company is also close to releasing the results of its vaccine’s final-stage clinical trials that were being conducted in Pakistan, Russia, Mexico, and Chile.

There might be a 25% decrease in procurement costs as the company claims it will fill vaccine vials in Pakistan.

Zaheer said, “We need to keep in mind that this coronavirus vaccine is a very scarce commodity, highly in demand, and you know the other countries many months ago started the advance booking, we also need to do the same, we are already late on that.”

“Once Pakistan does a booking, we will be in a position to know the delivery. I am sure the delivery will be much before other manufacturers,” he added.

The development comes a day after Pakistan government announced that China would offer Pakistan 500,000 doses of its COVID-19 vaccines by January 31.

CanSino has also agreed to supply 35 million doses to Mexico while Malaysia is in talks to get 3.5 million shots.