Covid-19 vaccine: Half-a-million doses to reach Pakistan today, NA told

ISLAMABAD: Parliam-entary Secretary for National Health Services Nausheen Hamid said Covid-19 vaccine is being imported in adequate quantity to successfully carry out vaccination of the people.

The parliamentary secretary told this to the National Assembly on Thursday while replying to the question during question hour session of the House.

She said the first consignment of purchased vaccine comprising 60,000 doses reached Pakistan on Wednesday. Another half a million doses will reach Pakistan today, she said.

The parliamentary secretary said Pakistan will import Chinese CanSino vaccine in bulk to package three million doses locally.

Nausheen said the vaccine would reach by the mid of next month and manpower is being trained for domestic production.

The parliamentary secretary said in the first phase, 450,000 health workers were registered for vaccination, while the people aged above 60 years are now being vaccinated.

Nausheen said a transparent mechanism has been developed for fixation of the prices of drugs.

The parliamentary secretary said the prices of drugs are mostly lower in Pakistan as compared to average prices in the region including India, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka.

She said the federal government and the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) are cognizant of the impact of increase in prices of drugs and it has been tried at best to allow increase at minimum level as compared to increase in manufacturing/import cost of drugs.

The parliamentary secretary said the DRAP, with the approval of the Federal Cabinet notified a Drug Pricing Policy-2018 which provides a transparent mechanism for fixation, decrease and increase in MRPs of drugs.

She said the MRPs of 562 drugs have been reduced and notified after approval by the federal government.

Nausheen said the DRAP published a public notice of reduced prices in the national newspapers for information of the public.

The parliamentary secretary said manufacturing of generic drugs is being encouraged and facilitated as by and large the generic products are cheaper than the branded drugs.

Parliamentary Secretary for Commerce and Industries Aliya Hamza Malik said 21 new entrants are entering the auto industry of Pakistan with an investment of $1 billion.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021