Daily Times

A major Chinese pharmaceutical company has invited the National Institute of Health (NIH), Islamabad, to collaborate in conducting clinical trials of its recently developed inactivated vaccine for Covid-19 in Pakistan, it emerged on Wednesday.

The developing world— which often lacks both a pharmaceutical industry to develop, test, and produce vaccines and the money to purchase them from elsewhere— has been forced to seek supplies from allies or from international groups attempting to obtain vaccines for poor countries.

“China hasn’t been a major vaccine producer globally. It needs to test its COVID-19 vaccines outside its borders because coronavirus cases in China have dwindled and it is harder to find the population diversity required,” read the report.

The publication reported that the state-owned China National Pharmaceutical Group, commonly known as Sinopharm, has teamed up with Karachi University’s International Centre for Chemical and Biological Sciences to hold the trials in Pakistan.

The race for the coronvirus vaccines have heated up in recent weeks with Western countries also pushing their vaccines to the final trial stage. COVID-19 vaccines are currently being developed by the Oxford University and the US-based Moderna Inc.

Though Pakistan lifted the coronavirus lockdown a few days ago, government officials have urged masses to implement COVID-19 SOPs and precautionary measures in order to thwart a second wave of the virus.