COVID-19: Pakistan authorises emergency use of Russia's Sputnik V vaccine

Pakistan's Drug Regulatory Authority has approved the emergency use of the Russian-made vaccine against the coronavirus disease, Gam-COVID-Vac, commonly known as Sputnik V. The regulatory authority held a meeting on Friday during which it gave emergency use authorisation to the Russain COVID-19 vaccine, The News International reported.

"The registration board of the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) in its 299th meeting on Friday, granted emergency use authorisation to Russian made COVID-19 vaccine Gam-COVID-Vac, whose trade name is Sputnik V. A local pharmaceutical firm, AGP Limited had applied for registration, marketing and distribution of the vaccine in Pakistan," an official of the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) told the Pakistani daily (The New) on Saturday.

"The decision to grant Emergency Use Authorisation was announced by the registration board of the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan during its meeting being held at 4:00 pm yesterday (Friday) following which, the first shipment of the vaccine is expected to reach Pakistan by next week", the DRAP official said.

Last week, vaccines developed by UK pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca and Oxford University along with China's Sinopharm were given authorisation for emergency use.

Pakistan has so far recorded 532,412 total cases and 11,295 deaths. Meanwhile, there are 34,628 active cases in the country with 4 per cent of positivity rate, Geo News reported