Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Science and Technology Syed Shibli Faraz Wednesday said his ministry will extend all out support to facilitate the vaccine development process in Pakistan.

The minister was chairing a meeting on vaccine development in Pakistan.

The success of Standards Operating Procedures (SOPs) implementation in the country against COVID-19 and the government’s strategy to cope with the pandemic is an example to the whole world.

Now, it is time to equip ourselves with the latest technologies to handle any future crisis, the minister said.

Shibli Faraz emphasized over vaccination development for meeting local needs as well as for export purposes. “We have capable people and companies, we need passion and support”, he added.

The federal minister assured that the government is ready to cooperate for this purpose.

COMSTECH will have to play a key role in vaccine development and bringing all the stakeholders together.

In his introductory remarks, Coordinator General, COMSTECH, Prof. Dr. M. Iqbal Choudhary, welcomed the participants and said that it is our national responsibility to use our capabilities to help in the development of human vaccines.

He assured that COMSTECH would provide every sort of possible support in this regard.

The meeting was attended by representatives from private sector leading pharmaceutical companies of Pakistan including Searle Pakistan Ltd, Ferozsons Laboratories, Amson Vaccines and Pharma, and Getz Pharma (Pvt). Ltd, Focus and Rulz Pharmaceuticals (Pvt.) Limited.

In addition, senior officials and experts of premier R&D institutions of Pakistan i.e. National Institute of Health (NIH), International Center for Chemical and Biological Sciences, University of Karachi, National Center for Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering, Faisalabad, Centre Excellence for Molecular Biology, University of Punjab were present in the meeting.

This meeting was started with the introduction of participants, their existing capacities in the field of manufacturing biologics and vaccines.

Detailed discussion was carried out for the enabling role of the Government of Pakistan.

Pharmaceutical companies explained in depth the bottlenecks faced by the industries to stay abreast with changes in the manufacturing of vaccines and biologics.

The Minister for Science and Technology entrusted responsibility to COMSTECH and National Institute of Health (NIH) for preparing a position paper to facilitate the industries and create sustainable linkage between industry and Research and Development institutions of Pakistan.