Trials of Chinese developed vaccine to begin in '10 days': Asad Umar

Pakistan is set to participate in the Phase 3 trials of a Chinese developed coronavirus vaccine, Federal Minister for Planning and Development Asad Umar said Saturday.

In a tweet, Umar said: "Pakistan will be participating in Phase 3 trials of a Chinese developed vaccine for coronavirus."

"The trials in Pakistan will Inshallah start in about 10 days time," he added.

The World Health Organization does not expect widespread vaccinations against COVID-19 until the middle of next year, a spokeswoman said, stressing the importance of rigorous checks on their effectiveness and safety.

Read more: Pakistan sees uptick in coronavirus cases for five straight days

None of the candidate vaccines in advanced clinical trials so far has demonstrated a “clear signal” of efficacy at the level of at least 50% sought by the WHO, spokeswoman Margaret Harris said.

Russia granted regulatory approval to a COVID-19 vaccine in August after less than two months of human testing, prompting some Western experts to question its safety and efficacy.

US public health officials and Pfizer had said a vaccine could be ready for distribution as soon as late October. That would be just ahead of the US election on November 3 in which the pandemic is likely to be a major factor among voters deciding whether President Donald Trump wins a second term.

“We are really not expecting to see widespread vaccination until the middle of next year,” Harris told a UN briefing in Geneva.

“This phase 3 must take longer because we need to see how truly protective the vaccine is and we also need to see how safe it is,” she added. This referred to the phase in vaccine research where large clinical trials among people are conducted. Harris did not refer to any specific vaccine candidate.

To date, Pakistan has reported 300,955 cases and 6,373 fatalities while over 280,000 have recovered from the virus.

Earlier, officials had said that the falling coronavirus cases in Pakistan will not affect a Phase 3 clinical trial for China’s CanSino Biologics' potential vaccine, which is expected to begin this month.

Read more: WHO asks world to learn from Pakistan's fight against COVID-19

Pakistan’s drug regulator, last month, gave the approval for the country’s first Phase 3 clinical trial for CanSino’s candidate, Ad5-nCoV, which will be led by the government-run National Institute of Health (NIH) along with pharmaceutical company AJM — the local representative of CanSino. 

“We are planning to launch the project on September 20, or at the latest within this month,” Hassan Abbas Zaheer, who is heading the trial for AJM, told Reuters.