New Delhi (NVI): Pakistan today approved Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine for emergency use authorization across the country, becoming the 22nd country to go for the Russian vaccine, according to reports.
Russia’s sovereign wealth fund was quoted as saying by foreign media reports that the Sputnik V vaccine against coronavirus has been approved by Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP).
“Pakistan has become the 22nd country in the world to approve Sputnik V accine,” it said.
RDIF also informed that the vaccine was granted under the emergency use authorization procedure based on the results of the clinical trials of Sputnik V in Russia.
“Pakistan is one of the most populated countries in the world, and the decision to include Sputnik V in the national vaccine portfolio is an important step to diversify it and protect people’s health,” Kirill Dmitriev, CEO of RDIF was quoted as saying by one such media report.
“Emergency use authorization of Sputnik V has become possible thanks to its high efficacy, safety and a well-researched platform of human adenoviral vectors,” Dmitriev was quoted as saying in a statement.
The latest data of Phase-3 clinical trial published in the Lancet journal confirmed that, the efficacy of Sputnik V vaccine is 91.6 per cent in providing full protection against severe cases of COVID-19, the RDIF statement said.
According to the media reports, Sputnik V is the third vaccine to be approved for the emergency use in Pakistan.
Earlier, the South Asian country had approved two COVID-19 vaccine — China’s Sinopharm vaccine and the one developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University.
So far, the Russian vaccine has also been approved in Belarus, Argentina, Bolivia, Serbia, Algeria, Palestine, Venezuela, Paraguay, Turkmenistan, Hungary, UAE, Iran, Republic of Guinea, Tunisia, Armenia, Mexico, Nicaragua, Republika Srpska (entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina), Lebanon and Myanmar, the RDIF said.
-RJV/ARK
