Pakistan has launched Phase III clinical trials for Chinese pharmaceutical company CanSino Biologics' COVID-19 vaccine candidate on 22 September 2020, Reuters news agency reported on Tuesday.

Reportedly, Pakistan gave the go-ahead for the country's first Phase-III clinical trial in August for CanSino's candidate, Ad5-nCoV, led by the government-run National Institute of Health (NIH) and pharmaceutical company AJM, the local representative of CanSino.

According to Pakistani minister Asad Umar, who also oversees command and control operations headed by the country's military to combat the COVID-19 outbreak, a total of 40,000 people across seven countries will participate in the trial, including up to 10,000 in Pakistan. Initial results are expected in four to six months.

This trial began at a hospital in Islamabad, where 20-25 subjects were expected to be enrolled daily. It will expand to several other cities in the coming days, Hassan Abbas Zaheer, who is heading the trial for AJM, told Reuters.

Pakistan confirmed 582 new COVID-19 cases on 22 September 2020, taking the country's total cases to 306,886, with 6,424 deaths.