Daily Times

The private supply of Covid-19 vaccines of the country has suffered a blow since 60,000 doses imported from Russia and China were used up earlier this month, with importers saying manufacturers are struggling to fulfil new orders from Pakistan due to rising global demand.

Two of Pakistan’s private pharmaceutical companies, AGP Limited and AJM Pharma, had imported 50,000 doses of Russia’s Sputnik V and 10,000 doses of a single-dose Chinese vaccine, Convidecia, in March and April this year, with the jabs administered to 35,000 people at private hospitals and medical facilities in the cities of Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad. “Our first shipment of 50,000 doses is fully utilised, but now we are facing supply issues for further imports from the manufacturer in Russia,” Muhammad Kamran Mirza, a non-executive director at AGP Limited said. He added that his company is trying to procure more vaccine doses from the manufacturers, but “we are not sure when we will get it.”

“Our imported vaccine has been administered in the hospitals where the vaccine’s trials were conducted earlier this year,” Sultan Khan, marketing executive at AJM Pharma Limited, told the media. “The Covid-19 vaccine is in high demand in the global market, and we are trying to help the government as much as we can to help fight the virus,” he added. As the third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic sweeps through the South Asian nation of 220 million, the government has ramped up demand for vaccines imported by private players.

Sputnik V and Convidecia vaccines are among the vaccines currently authorised for emergency use in Pakistan, which allowed both AGP and AJM to administer them at the cost of Rs8,449 for two doses of Sputnik and Rs4,225 for a single dose of Convidecia, based on prices fixed by the federal cabinet.