Pakistan approves Russian coronavirus vaccine for emergency use

Tariq Butt, Correspondent

The government has allowed the third Covid-19 vaccine to deal with the coronavirus pandemic, which has taken a heavy toll during the ongoing second wave.

It has given a go-ahead to a local pharmaceutical company for the import and distribution of the Russian-developed Sputnik V emergency use authorisation.

An official said that with the fresh decision, Russia’s Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine has become the third to be approved for emergency use.

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In a meeting conducted by the registration board of the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (Drap), another vaccine has also been given EUA (emergency use authorisation) which was developed with the backing of Russian Development Investment Fund, he said.

Russia’s Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine has become the third to be approved for emergency use.

Last week, the Drap authorized the Oxford University-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine for emergency use in Pakistan. A couple of days later, the regulatory body approved Chinese state-owned firm Sinopharm’s Covid-19 vaccine for emergency use, the second shot to be given approval for use in the country.

Sputnik V is the world’s first registered vaccine based on a well-studied human adenoviral vector-based platform, said the information available on the Sputnik V website. It currently ranks among top-10 candidate vaccines approaching the end of clinical trials and the start of mass production on the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) list.

The ongoing Sputnik V post-registration clinical trial in Russia involved 40,000 volunteers, the website said and added that clinical trials of Sputnik V had been announced in the UAE, India, Venezuela and Belarus.

Last week, Hungary became the first European Union (EU) country to approve the Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine for public distribution. A short time later a Gulf country also announced the same decision making it 12th country outside of Russia which have authorised its use.

The official said Russia’s state-owned Sputnik-V has developed a double-dose vaccine, which is administered by syringes.