KATHMANDU: The Department of Drugs Administration (DDA) has allowed the use of CoronaVac vaccine produced by the Beijing-based Sinovac Life Sciences Co. Ltd. The vaccine use was approved acting on the documents produced by Biomatrix Pvt. Ltd, a Nepal-based subsidiary company of the Sinovac.

Director General of the Department, Bharat Bhattarai has confirmed the approval for the vaccine use in Nepal. Following this, Biomatrix has asked for permission to supply the vaccine to Nepal. One million doses of the vaccine will be supplied for now.

Application has been filed seeking permission for the supply, said Director of Biomatrix BK Bhandari. Biomatrix has set the vaccine price at Rs 2,100 per dose, inclusive of transportation costs. “We have asked for permission for the supply at the earliest to prevent and control the infection hand in hand with the government and the people after the Department granted use of CoronaVac vaccine. We expect permission for the supply until Sunday,” he said.

“We are in constant contact with the vaccine-producing company. It pledged to supply one million doses in 20 days. We will supply all doses during the period”, he further shared. Biomatrix has constructed a storage to store the vaccine in Kathmandu.

Earlier, the Department has permitted the use of verocell vaccine produced by the Chinese company, Sinopharm.

The World Health Organization (WHO) approved emergency use of CoronaVac a week ago. The WHO has so far approved emergency use of two vaccines in use in Nepal.

CoronaVac has been used in Chile, Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico, Turkey and Thailand. The vaccine has cent percent positive results wherein vaccinated people did not show COVID-19 symptoms and they did not get serious illness after inoculation, according to international media.

People above 18 are eligible for inoculation, according to the WHO. China has provided 1.8 million doses of verocell vaccine in grant in two installments. Likewise, neighboring India has provided 1 million doses of Covishield.