The corona vaccine prepared by Oxford-AstraZeneca’s will cost around Rs. 1,000 (One thousand Rupees) for government while for private sector and institutions the price can be somewhere between Rs. 2,000 to Rs. 3,000.
This revelation was made by Usman Ghani during an interview to Dawn Newspaper, he represents the Sindh Medical Stores which is renowned as one of the biggest Pakistani importers of vaccines and pharmaceutical products.
Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (Drap) has approved Oxford-AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine but no official approval was provided to Sindh Medical Stores. Even if government provides the required approval, the booking and delivery will be a long process.
According to Usman Ghani, the vaccine is being manufactured in India and as a result India will have the first access to the stock. He also added that other countries such as Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh have also booked doses and had paid advance, while Pakistani government is still exploring vaccine options.
Currently AstraZeneca is busy in providing vaccines to those countries which have already booked and paid for it, but even if Pakistan confirms order for the vaccine then it will take some time as the manufacturing is limited. Meanwhile DRAP also approved another vaccines, Sinopharm, which is a Chinese vaccine.
Federal Government is aiming to procure 1 million doses of covid-19 vaccines by March, the different phases of the vaccination program was also revealed by government representatives in recent months.
It is expected that vaccination in Pakistan will be available through both government & private sector. Federal and provincial governments will provide it for free while private sector will provide it at market rates.
