ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is going to produce its indigenous ventilators within the next few weeks as clinical trials of six locally designed machines have entered their final stage in two different hospitals, Pakistan’s Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry told Arab News in an interview on Thursday.

“Pakistan is going to get its indigenous ventilators very soon as the prototype of the much-needed medical equipment is with the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) for final clinical testing and licensing. DRAP has adopted British standards for clinical testing of the ventilators,” he said, adding that the Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC) was handling the “top priority project” to overcome the shortage of ventilators in the country.

The minister said there was an urgent need to locally manufacture ventilators due to the rising number of coronavirus patients worldwide that had made the import of the new equipment a difficult task. In an alarming development, the total number of COVID-19 cases surged beyond 4,600 in Pakistan on Friday with 66 deaths from the virus.

“The PEC received 48 designs of ventilators. Six of them were approved before they were sent to DRAP for licensing,” Chaudhry said.

The minister added that DRAP had started clinical tests of the machine, and its manufacturing would start immediately after the government got a nod from the drug authority.

“We have asked DRAP to cut down routine procedure and deal with the issue on priority. A prototype of the machine has been successfully tested at the Indus Hospital Karachi and the Combine Military Hospital. Once these ventilators will be manufactured, they will be available all over Pakistan,” he continued.

The cost of indigenously manufactured ventilators would be three times less than the imported ones.

“Initially, we are looking to manufacture 500 ventilators on priority to deal with the COVID-19 emergency. The PEC is also in touch with the Pakistan Heavy Mechanical Complex, Pakistan Ordnance Factories and National Radio Telecommunication Corporation (NRTC) to fine tune the design,” he said.

Chaudhry added that Pakistan was also doing its research on coronavirus and would soon launch a research paper.