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Private Pak importers rush for Russian vax
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IANS | 08 Apr, 2021
Private importers in Pakistan are negotiating to procure more of Russia's Sputnik V vaccine for commercial sale.
AGP
Pharma, a pharmaceutical company based in the southern city of Karachi
that imported 50,000 doses of Sputnik V, said on Thursday they were
trying to get their hands on more.
"Our negotiations are ongoing
things are in the pipeline and we will know in a couple of days how many
more doses we may get," company's spokesman Umair Mukhtar told dpa news
agency.
More importers were seeking the government's permission
to import Russian jabs after a price dispute was resolved, Health
Ministry spokesman Sajid Shah said.
Pakistan's government last
week allowed private companies to import vaccines from Russia and China
but imposed a price cap on the amount that could be charged to the
consumer, around 80 dollars for two doses of Sputnik V.
The
importers had earlier refused to roll out the vaccine unless they were
allowed to set the price higher than the 50-dollar cap the government
was demanding.
While private distributors have not been able to
start purchases from China, a higher demand for that jab has pushed the
price beyond $100 at some private hospitals.
The 50,000 doses that AGP Pharma earlier imported were over-booked within hours, according to hospitals.
More
than 700,000 people have been infected so far with more than 15,000
deaths, but an official inoculation drive is moving slow after promised
supplies under the global distribution system COVAX were delayed.
Pakistan
was supposed to get 17 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccines in March,
but has not got the supplies so far after a production shortfall and
high demand in India.
Only 1 million people, mostly health
workers and elderly citizens, have been inoculated so far in the country
of 216 million. Most of those shots were donated from Pakistan's ally
China.
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