ISLAMABAD – The federal government has refused to allow five different trials of the anti-coronavirus vaccine on “moral grounds,” it emerged on Saturday.
Pakistan’s National Bioethics Committee (NBC) says various Pakistani pharmaceutical companies have sought permission to conduct experiments with Chinese and European vaccines, adding that the firms are seeking permission to experiment with Messenger RNA and conventional vaccines, local media reported.
According to NBC, the trials were to be held at Aga Khan Hospital, Karachi, and University of Health Sciences, Lahore.
The committee said that it will not allow the companies to inject placebo, apparently vaccine-like substance or ineffective substance or plain water, to people during vaccine trials.
The NBC stated that it cannot risk the lives of the citizens for trials, adding that injecting placebo could lead to COVID infection and even death of the person.
It said that administrating placebo to citizens is not morally correct since Pakistan has various COVID vaccines for public. It added that companies will not be allowed to play with human lives.
Read more: https://pakobserver.net/covid-19-pakistan-reports-less-than-2-positivity-rate/
