10,000 doses of CanSino vaccine gathering dust in Karachi

KARACHI: At a time when Pakistan is desperately looking for COVID-19 vaccines to inoculate millions of people, 10,000 doses of single-dose Chinese vaccine Convidecia, imported by a private firm in Pakistan, are lying useless at a warehouse in Karachi, at least for the last 10 days as Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) is awaiting ‘some documents’ to release the consignment, The News has learnt.

“10,000 doses of Convidecia vaccine, developed by the CanSino Biologics Inc, had arrived in Karachi at least 10 days ago. This shipment was imported by a private firm AJM Limited and it was to be supplied to three hospitals in the country but it has not yet been released by the DRAP due to red-tapism,” an official of the National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination (NHS,R&C) told The News on Friday.

Pakistan had granted emergency use authorization to China’s CanSino Biologics Inc’s COVID-19 vaccine in February 2021 following its successful trials at various health facilities in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad while the Government of Pakistan also purchased 60,000 doses of the Chinese vaccine last month, which are currently being used to inoculate elderly population as well as the disabled.

Pakistan has so far inoculated 1.4 million of its population mostly with China’s Sinopharm vaccine while 20,000 people have so far been inoculated with privately imported Sputnik V vaccine, officials said adding that at least 30,000 people have also been given CanSino’s Convidecia vaccine at the Adult Vaccination Centers of the government.

The National Health Services official blamed the DRAP for the delay in release of vaccine consignment and added that it did the same when 50,000 doses of Russian vaccine Sputnik V arrived in the country and remained in the cold storage for over a month due to controversy over its pricing.

“As it (COVID-19 vaccine) is a biological product, it needs testing and approval by the technical director of the DRAP. There are some other documentary requirements, which must be met for the release of biological products but COVID-19 is an emergency and vaccine should not be kept even for an hour as it can result in loss of precious lives”, the official added.

An official of the AJM Pharma Pvt Limited, which imported the vaccine in Pakistan, also confirmed that the first shipment of 10,000 doses of China’s Convidecia vaccine had arrived at Karachi Airport in the first week of April 2021 but since then, it had not been released to them for its supply to hospitals in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad.

“CanSino Biologics Inc’s single dose is the most suitable vaccine for Pakistan as its trials were held in three major cities of Pakistan where over 15,000 people were recruited for these trials. At a time when Pakistan desperately need this vaccine, holding 10,000 doses of this precious shipment is unfortunate”, the official added.

To a query, he said three private hospitals were anxiously awaiting vaccine supply for administering it to people and added that they had planned to supply it to Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi, Shaukat Khanum Hospital in Lahore and Shifa International Hospital, Islamabad.

“The pricing board of DRAP has already approved its price which is Rs4,225 as maximum retail price in the country. Now all we are awaiting is to supply this shipment to private hospitals where it would hopefully be consumed within a couple of days”, the official added.