Islamabad: Pakistan is set to receive the first shipment of China’s CanSino Biologics Inc (CanSinoBIO) vaccine this week for private use as the country is battling the third wave of coronavirus. This will be the second private vaccine shipment after the country recently received the first batch of 50,000 doses of Russian Sputnik V vaccine.
“The first consignment of 10,000 single-dose CanSino vaccine is expected to arrive on March 25,” Dr Hasan Abbas Zaheer, an official of AJM Pharma, the private pharmaceutical company importing the Chinese vaccine, told Gulf News. CanSino’s local partner hopes to procure 100,000 doses in April and 200,000 the month after. The company has also received approval for the bulk import of the Chinese vaccine with filling and packaging vials with vaccine to be carried out in Pakistan. “The bulk import will cut the imported vaccine’s cost by one fourth” he said.
The vaccine’s commercial name in Pakistan would be ‘Convidecia’. However, it will not be sold or distributed in the market and will only be administered at the hospitals that conducted its clinical trials in Pakistan. These hospitals include Shifa International Hospital in Islamabad, Shaukat Khanum Hospital in Lahore and Aga Khan University Hospital in Karachi, said Dr Zaheer, technical adviser at AJM Pharma.
Pricing
Pakistan government has approved a mechanism to fix open market prices for the vaccines. The summary submitted to the federal cabinet proposed a price of Rs8,449 ($54.13) per pack of the two-dose Russian Sputnik V vaccine and Rs4,225 ($27.07) for the single-dose Chinese CanSino vaccine. The official decision is awaited.
Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) has approved two formulas for a maximum retail price of the vaccine. The first states that the price will be equal to landed cost with 40 per cent mark-up while the second formula for bulk import and local repack of vaccines says the price will be equal to landed cost plus packaging cost and 40 per cent mark-up for companies.
75% efficacy of China’s CanSino vaccine in Pakistan
China’s CanSino vaccine trial results showed 74.8 per cent efficacy in limiting symptomatic cases and a 100 per cent success rate in preventing severe disease among Pakistanis. CanSino is one of the few single-dose COVID-19 vaccines. The other one-shot vaccine is Johnson & Johnson. The single-dose vaccines raise hopes for faster rollout in developing countries where it might be hard to convince people to show up for the second shot.
Pakistan’s government is currently vaccinating frontline healthcare workers and citizens over the age of 60 free of charge, administering the 1 million Sinopharm doses received from China.
