Coronavirus vaccine trials start this week in Pakistan: taskforce chairperson

Clinical trials for a vaccine for the novel coronavirus will start this week in Pakistan, says Attaur Rehman, the chairperson of the Prime Minister’s Task Force on Science and Technology.

The COVID-19 vaccine will be produced by a “well acclaimed international company”, added Dr Rahman, reported Radio Pakistan on September 20.

The chairman said the International Center for Chemical and Biological Sciences based at the University of Karachi has been approved for the vaccine trials. Once the trials are completed, the vaccine will be available for everyone between April and June next year (2021).

In August, the National Ministry of Health Services had said the vaccine will be made available to all high-risk people on a priority basis. Healthcare professionals, government officials, elderly people and those with underlying illness are included in the high-risk population.

The National Institute of Health in Islamabad has approved phase III clinical trials in the country for a coronavirus vaccine developed by China. The approved vaccine was one of the two experimental vaccines China’s Beijing-based Sinovac Biotech had developed for COVID-19.