Pakistan officially launched domestically produced ‘PakVac’ COVID-19 vaccine in a ceremony held in Islamabad on Tuesday (today).
Expressing his views in a special ceremony held in Islamabad, Federal Minister for Planning and Development Asad Umar highlighted that countries which focus on increasing their knowledge and have the capacity to translate that knowledge equation into technology progress.
Meanwhile, SAPM on Health Dr Faisal Sultan expressed gratitude to China for its assistance in developing PakVac vaccine and continuing support to Pakistan in tackling COVID-19 pandemic.
The launching ceremony was also attended by Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan Mr Nong Rong who termed the launching of PakVac as a testament to Pak-China friendship.
NIH facility inaugurated today for the formulation, fill and finish of the CanSino-Bio vaccine. Dr Aamer Ikram and his team have done a great job! This is a milestone in the journey to achieve to self-reliance pic.twitter.com/pNeCTAC1RW
— Faisal Sultan (@fslsltn) June 1, 2021
The development comes as earlier, DRAP had approved PakVac to be used for mass inoculation in Pakistan.
The single-dose PakVac is a license produced domestic version of CaninoBio COVID-19 vaccine of China and is being manufactured by National Institute of Health (NIH) Islamabad.
PakVac will significantly boost Pakistan’s COVID-19 vaccination capacity as the country is currently utilizing a total of six COVID-19 vaccines namely Sinopharm, CansinoBio, Sputnik V, Oxford AstraZeneca, Pfizer and Sinovac to carryout nation-wide inoculation drive against the novel virus.