Pharma company says all set to roll out Sputnik vaccine in Pakistan this week

ISLAMABAD: A private pharmaceutical company, AGP Limited, that imported the first shipment of 50,000 doses of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine to Pakistan earlier this month, said on Monday it would roll out the shots this week in all government authorized medical facilities.
The Russian vaccine is the first private batch purchased and imported by a private company in Pakistan and has been kept in cold storage in Karachi for the last two weeks as AGP has failed to reach an agreement with the government over the vaccine's per dose price.
The government last week fixed the maximum sale price of the Sputnik vaccine at Rs8,449 ($54) for two doses, which AGP rejected, saying it had imported the shots at a much higher rate.
In February, Pakistan said it would allow private companies to import coronavirus vaccines and agreed to exempt such imports from price caps, but earlier this month the health chief said that decision was being reversed and the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) would now recommend a price, which the cabinet would approve.
“We are in the final stage of negotiations with the government over the vaccine price cap, and hopefully we will be rolling it out across Pakistan this week,” Umair Mukhtar, head of business planning and corporate affairs at AGP, told Arab News on Monday, adding that the company would sell the vaccine only to government authorized medical facilities and private hospitals, who would administer the vaccine.
Talking about the vaccine price, he said the company had requested DRAP to fix the per dose price as per the established formula of 40 percent in addition to the landing cost of the product. He declined to specify what price AGP would be satisfied with.
“We are hopeful to get a reasonable price as per the government’s formula,” Mukhtar said. “We are now busy in preparations of the rollout and hopefully will do it with the support of the government.”
Mukhtar said the company would import more doses for public use once the pricing mechanism was finalized and per dose cost was approved and officially announced: “We want to fight this pandemic along with the government.”
Transparency International-Pakistan, in a letter to Prime Minister Imran Khan last week, said the global price set for Sputnik-V was $10 per dose and the one being recommended in Pakistan was 160 percent higher than the international price. The watchdog urged the prime minister to ‘cancel’ the private import of COVID-19 vaccines, citing concerns over price and the potential for corruption.
Akhtar Abbas, a spokesperson for DRAP, said a robust mechanism was in place to ensure the vaccine would only be sold at the government-fixed price.
“The DRAP’s pricing committee may review the Sputnik vaccine price if the company provides additional documents to support its claim of a higher landing cost of the product,” he told Arab News, adding that only the federal cabinet was authorized to fix a maximum retail price of the vaccine, and DRAP could only recommend a formula.