Staff Report
KARACHI: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) on Friday issued a notification for tax exemption on imports of 61 items used in the preparation of COVID-19 vaccines. The federal cabinet had earlier given approval to exempt imports of 61 items used in the preparation of COVID-19 vaccine from taxes and duties on November 17.
Agencies add: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) took three days to issue the notification in this regards.
The tax exemption will ensure availability of necessary medical equipment to the hospitals besides expediting the preparation of the coronavirus vaccine and reducing its cost.
According to FBR officials, the importers will be given tax exemption till June 30 – 2021 to bring in the essential items related to the medication of novel coronavirus.
Earlier in the day, media reported the lack of interest of the revenue board in duty-free imports of 61 items of COVID-19 vaccine despite getting approval from the federal cabinet.
The commerce ministry had also issued a statutory notification (SRO) regarding the items. The FBR’s lack of interest is delaying the duty-free imports of the essential items which would be used for timely commencement of coronavirus vaccine and reducing its cost.
In another development on Friday, the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) approved a technical supplementary grant for the advance purchases of COVID-19 vaccines.
The Ministry of National Health Services Regulations and Coordination sought $150 million funds from the federal government for advance booking of COVID-19 vaccines, it was learnt earlier in the day.
While, The World Health Organization (WHO) has recommended against using the antiviral Remdesivir, a drug that had generated intense interest, as a treatment for coronavirus.
An expert panel “concluded that remdesivir has no meaningful effect on mortality or on other important outcomes for patients, such as the need for mechanical ventilation or time to clinical improvement,” the WHO announced. The panel published its review in the journal ‘The BMJ’.
The report did not rule out use of the drug altogether as a Covid treatment, but said evidence was lacking to recommend its use.
Remdesivir has received global attention in treating severe coronavirus cases and is increasingly being used for hospitalized patients. But its role in clinical practice has remained uncertain.
WHO’s recommendation is based on new evidence comparing the effects of
several drugs on treating the virus and includes data from four international
randomized trials involving more than 7,000 COVID-19 inpatients.
After reviewing the evidence, the WHO Guideline Development Group (GDG) expert panel, which includes four patients who have had the coronavirus, concluded that the intravenously administered Remdesivir “has no meaningful effect on mortality or on other important outcomes for patients, such as the need for mechanical ventilation or time to clinical improvement”.
The panel acknowledged that the certainty of the evidence is low and did not prove
that Remdesivir has no benefit; but rather, “there is no evidence based on currently available data that it does improve important patient outcomes”, according to the
WHO release.
However, the GDG supported the continued enrolment of patients into Remdesivir evaluation trials to determine whether more substantial evidence can be obtained, especially with regards to specific groups of patients.
The WHO press release also cites a feature article linked in the panel’s BMJ report, which says that the full story of Remdesivir will not be understood until its manufacturer, Gilead, releases full clinical study reports.
In the meantime, reports the journalist who wrote the feature, Jeremy Hsu, alternative treatments such as widely available corticosteroid, dexamethasone, that has been proved to reduce mortality among some severely-ill COVID-19 sufferers, are “now impacting discussions about Remdesivir’s cost-effectiveness”, in the words of the WHO press release.
