The government has allowed another vaccine against Covid-19 under “emergency use authorization” and given a go-ahead to a local pharmaceutical company for the import and distribution of the Russian-developed Sputnik V, an official confirmed on Saturday.
With the fresh decision, the official said, Russia’s Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine; became the third to be approved for emergency use in the country.
“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 authorization); which was developed with the backing of Russian Development Investment Fund,” the official privy to the development said.
Last week, 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; it said and added that clinical trials of Sputnik V had been announced in the UAE, India, Venezuela, and Belarus.
Hungary approves the Sputnik V
Last week, Hungary became the first European Union country to approve the Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine for public distribution. A short time later the UAE also announced the same decision making it the 12th country outside of Russia which has authorized its use.
“Russia’s state-owned Sputnik-V has developed a double-dose vaccine, which is administered by syringes,” an official said.
A local pharmaceutical AGP, he said, had been authorized as the sole importer and distributor of the Russian vaccine.