Pakistani firm willing to provide Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine at $6-7 if govt buys in bulk.

KARACHI -- The federal and provincial governments have been offered to buy the Oxford-AstraZeneca's coronavirus vaccine for $6-7 by a Pakistani importer if they procure the important drug in bulk, reported The News on Thursday.

However, Sindh Medical Stores (SMS) has not given a timeframe as to when it would be able to deliver the vaccine to the country.

SMS was allowed to import the Oxford-AstraZeneca's vaccine in Pakistan by the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) on Friday. The approval was given on the recommendations of an experts panel that asked DRAP to give emergency use authorisation to the British-Swedish multinational company's AZD-1222 vaccine in the country.

'After getting the emergency use authorisation and permission from the DRAP to import the Oxford-AstraZeneca's AZD1222 vaccine in Pakistan, we have offered to provide it for USD 6-7 per dose to the federal and provincial governments. We, however, don't know when we would be able to get hold of the first consignment of the vaccine as it has been already purchased by the several countries of the world,' SMS official Usman Ghani told media.

The official shared that SMS will be able to provide the British company's vaccine $6-7 per dose, making it Rs1,000 to 1,200 per dose if the government agrees to buy 30 to 50 million doses.

'For the private sector and institutions, we have offered to provide it for Rs2,000 to Rs2,500 per dose if they order 10,000 or more doses. But it should be very clear that we would only be providing the vaccine to reputed institutions like Aga Khan University Hospital (AKUH), Shaukat Khanum hospital and others,' Usman Ghani added.

To a question about the delivery of the vaccine, Ghani said that he could...