According to the Dawn newspaper, citing a source in the government, the registration board of the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan held a meeting during which it gave emergency use authorisation to Sputnik V. Domestic company AGP was allowed to import and distribute the Russian vaccine.
Sputnik V becomes the third one to receive authorisation in the country, following the vaccines developed by UK pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca and Oxford University as well as China's Sinopharm.
Sputnik V was the first COVID-19 vaccine registered in Russia and the world. It is 92 percent effective, based on the data from the first 16,000 trial participants who have received both shots of the two-dose vaccine.
The vaccine has already been cleared for use in multiple countries, including, Argentina, Hungary, Algeria and Palestine. The registration process in the European Union is underway.