Pfizer, AstraZeneca corona vaccines to be used for elderly

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan plans to administer Pfizer-BioNTech and AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccines to its elderly population, a health official said.

The Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) has till now granted emergency validation to the Chinese-made Sinopharm vaccine and the AstraZeneca vaccine developed by Oxford University.

Pfizer, too, will now be filing for emergency use authorisation in Pakistan later this month, a senior health official told Geo, on the condition of anonymity as he was not authorised to speak to the press.

“Pfizer has not applied as yet [for approval],” he explained, “They [the company] have conveyed that they are preparing a dossier for submission by the end of February.” Once the pharmaceutical company submits its proposal, the drug regulatory authority will then decide if it is safe to roll out the jab.

On February 2, Pakistan officially kicked off its coronavirus inoculation campaign nationwide, after China gifted the country 500,000 doses of the Sinopharm vaccine.

The tranche will be used to vaccinate the 500,000 healthcare workers in the country who are directly in contact with the Covid-19 infected. Since then, Pakistan has immunised 10,000 healthcare workers, the health official told Geo TV.

Besides, Pakistan is also on the list to receive 17,160,000 doses through the global COVAX platform, which is expected to buy in bulk the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine and a smaller quantity of Pfizer as well.