China will supply a candidate for coronavirus vaccines, developed by a unit of the China National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm) to Pakistan as part of a trial agreement, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.
State-owned Sinopharm is set to work with the University of Karachi on vaccine trials, according to the WSJ report, which said Pakistan would get enough doses early in distribution to vaccinate about a fifth of its population.
The initial doses will be used to vaccinate the most vulnerable among the Pakistani population, including the elderly, health care workers and people with medical conditions associated with serious cases of Covid-19, the report added.
Related: Who would be the first to receive a Covid-19 vaccine?
Earlier in April, Sinopharm had invited the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Islamabad, to collaborate in conducting clinical trials of its inactivated vaccine for Covid-19 in Pakistan.
In a letter sent to NIH Executive Director Maj Gen Dr Aamer Ikram, the general manager of China Sinopharm International Corp., Li Can, had expressed the hope that “a successful clinical trial in Pakistan will make it one of the [the] first few countries for the launch of a Covid-19 vaccine “.
Dr. Ikram had then told Dawn.com that although clearance was needed for the purpose, the cooperation could be “a great deal for Pakistan”.
Meanwhile, researchers said Sinofarm’s coronavirus vaccine candidate appeared safe and triggered anti-inflammatory immune responses in early- and mid-stage studies.
The candidate has already moved into a trial in the late stages, one of a handful of candidates being tested on several thousand people to see if they are effective enough to win regulatory approval.
Sinopharm is testing the potential vaccine in the United Arab Emirates in a Phase 3 trial that is expected to recruit 15,000 people because China has too few new cases to be a useful trial site.
The shot did not cause any serious side effects, according to a paper published Thursday in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) by scientists involved in Sinopharm and other China-based diseases for disease control and research institutes.
The results were based on data from 320 healthy adults in Phase 1 and 2 tears.
The candidate triggered robust antibody responses in inoculated humans, but it remained unknown if that was enough to prevent Covid-19 infection, said researchers developing the vaccine, said in the paper.
The chairman of Sinopharm told state media last month that a potential vaccine could be ready by the end of this year with Phase 3 tests expected after about three months.
The novel coronavirus, which has killed more than 750,000 people worldwide, has developed a race for a vaccine. More than 150 candidate faxes are being developed and tested around the world.
Russia became the first country to give regulatory approval to a vaccine after less than two months of human testing, and a shot developed by Chinese firm CanSino Bilogics has been removed for use in the military.
China is leading the development of at least eight vaccine candidates in various stages of clinical trials.
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