Experts panel says safety and efficacy priority while selecting Covid-19 vaccine for Pakistan

KARACHI: An expert committee comprising top-of-the-line health experts of the country Friday said safety of the people was their foremost priority while selecting the COVID-19 vaccine for the people and they were carefully reviewing the ‘safety and efficacy’ data of various before acquiring them for the country.

“The expert committee constituted by the authorities is carefully reviewing the data of various vaccines, including those which have gained the emergency used authorization and are being deployed in various countries of the world.

We have sought more data from the manufacturers and once we and Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) are satisfied with the safety and efficacy of the data, we will present our recommendations to the government”, a member of the government’s expert committee told The News on Friday.

The health expert, who requested anonymity, said they were already reviewing the data of three vaccines developed by the Chinese, European and Russian manufacturers, and added that they had sought more details from the manufacturers as there were several questions and concerns that need to be addressed before selecting one or more ‘suitable’ vaccines for the people.

Citing the ‘disappointing data from Brazil’ where a Chinese vaccine Sinovac was only found to be 50.4 percent effective during trials, the expert committee member said they had to be ‘extra vigilant’ while making a selection, adding that no decision could be made on the basis of incomplete and inaccurate data.

When asked that even India was going to vaccinate its population in a day or two with locally-developed vaccine, the expert claimed that a several leading Indian scientists were also criticizing the ‘rushed’ approval of Indian COVID-19 vaccine without efficacy data. Some of the European vaccines were approved for ‘restricted use’ in an emergency situation and their manufacturers would have to continue the clinical trials until they are proved 100 percent safe and effective, the committee member added.

“Fortunately, COVID-19 situation is not as bad in Pakistan as compared to India, Brazil, United States and some other countries of the world. For instance, more people have died in United States during last four days then the total number of deaths in Pakistan during the entire pandemic.

This does not mean that we should take years to make decisions but we need a little more time and more data to make a correct decision in the interest of people”, he added.Vaccination to commence in the first quarter, Dr. Faisal Sultan

Special Assistant to Prime Minister on health Dr. Faisal Sultan when approached again to comment on the availability of the vaccine in Pakistan, reiterated that vaccination to the frontline healthcare workers would commence in the first quarter of the current year and in this regard, negotiations were underway with several vaccine manufacturers of the world.

He maintained that he wishes to make the COVID-19 vaccine available for Pakistan on the next day but it will be made in the light of a wholesome evaluation of the the situation including efficacy, safety and timely availability data.A final order would be placed very soon.

“We are already negotiating with manufacturers including Chinese, European and Russian vaccine manufacturers of the COVID-19 vaccine for Pakistan. We are also part of the Covax facility and through it, we would get vaccines for 20 percent of our population but we are also in talks with manufacturers for the direct purchase”, the SAPM added.

He maintained that they have a target to vaccinate around 100 million of country’s adult population or at least 70-80 million people, adding that it will take time to acquire vaccine doses for all of them so they will try to ‘mix and match’ of different vaccines to immunize the targeted population.