Covishield has been built by the Pune-based Serum Institute of India. Pakistan will receive 4.5 crore doses of the drug under the GAVI alliance.
Pakistan receiving 4.5 million doses of ‘Made in India’ Covishield
According to a report by Pakistan daily The Nation, 4.5 million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, also known as Covishield, will arrive in Pakistan in March. This will be the first batch of Covishield to reach Pakistan.
Covishield is produced by the Serum Institute of India (SII), Pune – the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer. It is one of the two vaccines that have been allowed for emergency use by the Drugs Controller General of India (DGCI). The second is Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin, a Hyderabad-based company developed in association with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and the National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune.
According to reports, the international alliance, GAVI, will provide 4.5 crore doses of Covishield to Pakistan. These supplements are among those purchased by GAVI – a public-private global health coalition with the goal of increasing vaccination penetration in poor countries.
The coalition, which provided aid to Pakistan during the pandemic, signed an agreement with Islamabad in September last year to provide the coronavirus vaccine.
According to Aamir Ashraf Khwaja, Federal Secretary National Health Service, Regulation, and Coordination, the distribution of 4.5 crore India-made vaccines will begin this month.
Earlier this month, the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan approved the use of the Chinese COVID-19 vaccine Sinopharma for people over 60 years of age.