Islamabad: A Chinese pharmaceutical company has invited the National Institute of Health (NIH) of Pakistan to collaborate in conducting clinical trials of its recently developed inactivated novel coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccines in the country.


COMMERCIAL BREAK
SCROLL TO CONTINUE READING

This clinical trial will help the Chinese pharmaceutical company to know whether the vaccine will be successful in treating COVID-19 infected patients or not and whether it has any side effects on humans.


As per Pakistani media reports, the clinical trial will begin in the next three months. 


Currently, no country in the world has been successful in preparing the vaccine of the deadly coronavirus. Pakistan is confident that if these clinical trials are successful, it will be able to acquire this vaccine from China at the earliest.


A vaccine is declared safe for human use only after several stages of clinical trials. The clinical trials of the vaccine are generally performed on animals before humans. However, successful testing of a vaccine on animals does not always give the same results on humans.


Clinical trials on humans have many dangers as it also involves chances of risking one's life due to the side effect or other biological reasons. Earlier on April 13, World Health Organization (WHO) chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus had said that coronavirus COVID-19 is 10 times more deadly than swine flu and only a vaccine can fully halt transmission of coronavirus.


Pakistan has about 11 thousand patients of coronavirus and the number of fatalities stands at around 230. The chances of the rapid spread of COVID-19 infection have increased in Pakistan and it is also being assumed that in the next 1 week more than 20 thousand people in Pakistan may suffer from COVID-19 infection and about 500 people may end up losing their lives.