Can Pakistan Effectively Respond to Coronavirus Pandemic?

Pakistani public health system's ability to deal with Covid19 pandemic is increasingly being questioned with the number of confirmed coronavirus cases spiking in the country. The current hotspot is in southern Sindh province where the provincial government is taking the lead in fighting its spread by shutting schools, closing restaurants and shopping malls and banning large gatherings such as weddings and conferences. The federal government has closed Pakistan's western border with Iran where the coronavirus pandemic is raging. Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority has started screening all incoming passengers and stopped flights to and from several countries hit by the pandemic. Pakistani health experts are advising people with flu-like symptoms to self-isolate in their homes. The best known treatment for the severely ill is Resochin, the anti-malarial antiviral made by Bayer Pakistan. Hydroxycholroquine (HCQ), made by Getz Pakistan, is also reportedly effective in treating Covid19.

Coronavirus Global Pandemic

Is Pakistan Ready?

Pakistan is among only 6 countries in the world that have taken the steps they need to evaluate their ability to withstand a global pandemic, according to a 2017 report sponsored by the World Bank. The 6 countries named in the report are: Eritrea, Finland, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Tanzania and the United States.

Covid19 Coronavirus. Source: US CDC

Pakistan's ability to deal with a pandemic is now being tested by the coronavirus. The current hotspot for it is in southern Sindh province where the provincial government is taking the lead in fighting its spread by shutting schools, closing restaurants and shopping malls and banning large gatherings such as weddings and conferences. The federal government has closed Pakistan's western border with Iran where the coronavirus pandemic is raging. Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority has started screening all incoming passengers and stopped flights to and from several countries hit by the pandemic. Pakistani health experts are advising people with flu-like symptoms to self-isolate in their homes.

Pakistan is ramping up coronavirus testing and setting up isolation wards at many hospitals in Sindh and across the country. More testing accounts for the spike in confirmed cases. The best known treatment for the severely ill is Resochin, the anti-malarial antiviral made by Bayer Pakistan.

In response to a recent request by Pakistan's Express Tribune newspaper staff, World Health Organization Executive Director Dr. Michael J. Ryan said Pakistan has great capacity in public health but he also talked of challenges posed by the Coronavirus pandemic. “Pakistan has a highly mobile population with mega cities and undeserved people,” he said.  “So there is a great challenge facing Pakistan. But Pakistan has also demonstrated time and again with dengue, polio and other diseases how all of the government and society’s approaches can be made to work.”

Dr. Palitha Gunarathna Mahipala, World Health Organization (WHO) representative in Pakistan, also lauded Pakistan's response to Covid19 pandemic, according to The News. He said,  “Pakistan has timely come up with one of the world’s best National Response Program against COVID-19 and it is being implemented very effectively. Authorities are doing their job and now it is the responsibility of the people to follow the instructions and take preventive and precautionary measures to avoid contracting the viral disease.”

The World Bank report titled "From Panic and Neglect to Investing in Health Security: Financing Pandemic Preparedness at a National Level" was written by experts from the World Bank,  the World Health Organization, the International Monetary Fund, the African and Asian development banks, and finance officials from various governments. The report included estimates of the economic damage various epidemics had done. For example, the viral pneumonia SARS — which ultimately killed only 774 people — shrank China’s gross domestic product by 0.5 percent in 2003. The report also broke down costs on a per capita basis. A major flu pandemic, for example, would cost Afghanistan only $12 per citizen, India $31, Pakistan $28 and the United States $248.

Social Distancing:


The current hotspot is in southern Sindh province where the provincial government is taking the lead in fighting its spread by shutting schools, closing restaurants and shopping malls and banning large gatherings. The federal government has closed Pakistan's western border with Iran where the coronavirus pandemic is raging. Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority has started screening all incoming passengers and stopped flights to and from several countries hit by the pandemic.

Italian experience with coronavirus has shown that even a well-developed public health system in a rich European country can be overwhelmed by rapidly growing pandemic such as Covid19.  The best way to handle the situation is to cut the infection rate by keeping people about 6 feet apart. This is being called "social distancing".

Social Distancing to Limit Infection Rates 

Based on what the United States has learned from what is happening in Italy, major cities and states in America are taking steps to reduce large gatherings of people. Offices, schools, restaurants and shopping centers are closed with shelter-in-place orders in Silicon Valley and the larger 6-county San Francisco Bay Area.

Herd Immunity:

Herd immunity develops when a large percentage of population is infected or vaccinated. Dr. Arindam Basu, Associate Professor of Epidemiology and Environmental Health at University of Canterbury, has recently written an article in The Conversation arguing that it is "unethical and potentially dangerous" to wait for herd immunity to develop in the absence of a vaccine.  It could result in hundreds of thousands or even millions of deaths among the most vulnerable segments of the population such as the elderly and the immune-compromised.

Pakistan's Assistance to China:

Chinese President Xi Jinping has thanked Pakistan for its support during coronabirus outbreak in his country. "China is deeply grateful for Pakistan's support. Facts have proved once again that China and Pakistan are true friends who share weal and woe and good brothers who share each other's joys and sorrows. The special friendship is a historical choice, and is deeply rooted in the hearts of the two peoples," said Xi.

Resochin (Chloroquine) Produced by Bayer Pakistan 

At the peak of the outbreak in February, Bayer Pakistan exported to China 300,000 tablets of Resochin (Chloroquine) that proved effective in treating coronavirus infections and saving lives in Wuhan. Resochin is an antiviral drug used for treating malaria. Chloroquine is manufactured by not just Bayer but several other drug companies as well.  China and many other countries discontinued its production years ago.   Several Pakistani pharmaceutical companies also manufacture HydroxyChloroquine which has lower toxicity and fewer side effects. The United Kingdom has banned hoarding and export of both of these drugs. In addition, Pakistan donated 7,000 surgical masks to China at the peak of the coronavirus outbreak.  A recent paper titled "An Effective Treatment for Coronavirus (COVID-19)"  by James M. Todaro, MD and and Gregory J. Rigano, Esq. has published data showing the efficacy of familiar anti-malaria drugs Chloroquine and Hydroxychloroquine for treatment of and as prophylactic against COVID-19.

In Vitro Efficacy of Chloroquine(CQ) vs Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) Ag...

Recently, Chinese research (reported in Clinical Trials Arena) reported that “data from the drug’s [chloroquine] studies showed ‘certain curative effect’ with ‘fairly good efficacy’ … patients treated with chloroquine demonstrated a better drop in fever, improvement of lung CT images, and required a shorter time to recover compared to parallel groups. The percentage of patients with negative viral nucleic acid tests was also higher with the anti-malarial drug… Chloroquine has so far shown no obvious serious adverse reactions in more than 100 participants in the trials… Chloroquine was selected after several screening rounds of thousands of existing drugs. Chloroquine is undergoing further trials in more than ten hospitals in Beijing, Guangdong province and Hunnan province.”

A small French study found only 25% of COVID19 patients who took it for 6 days still had the virus while 90% of those who had not taken it still had Covid-19.

HCQ (Hydroxychloroquine) Manufactured by Getz Pakistan

Economic Impact of Coronavirus Pandemic:

Service sector accounts for  50% of the world GDP and 54% of Pakistan's GDP.  Social distancing will significantly impact the services, particularly retail, restaurants, travel, transport and education sectors. Imran Khan has expressed fear that the pandemic will devastate the economies of developing countries.

“My worry is poverty and hunger," Khan said. "The world community has to think of some sort of a debt write-off for countries like us, which are very vulnerable, at least that will help us in coping with (the coronavirus).”

Summary:

Pakistan is among only six countries in the world that have taken the steps they need to evaluate their ability to withstand a global pandemic, according to a 2017 report sponsored by the World Bank. The current hotspot is in southern Sindh province where the provincial government is taking the lead in fighting its spread by shutting schools, closing restaurants and shopping malls and banning large gatherings. The federal government has closed Pakistan's western border with Iran where the coronavirus pandemic is raging. Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority has started screening all incoming passengers and stopped flights to and from several countries hit by the pandemic.  The best known treatment for the severely ill is Resochin, the anti-malarial antiviral made by Bayer Pakistan.  Dr. Michael Ryan and Dr. Palitha Gunarathna Mahipala of the World Health Organization (WHO) have talked of challenges Pakistan faces but also praised the steps it has taken to fight coronavirus pandemic.

Here's the latest Coronavirus Pandemic Update:

https://youtu.be/vE4_LsftNKM

Related Links:

Views: 1231

Comment by Riaz Haq on May 6, 2020 at 11:23am

Sapiens author Yuval Harari: "..coronavirus epidemic as the moment when a new regime of surveillance took over, especially surveillance under the skin..." #COVID #coronavirus #surveillance #privacy https://www.bbc.com/news/av/technology-52441339/yuval-noah-harari-c...

The coronavirus pandemic could prove to be a watershed event in terms of enabling greater surveillance of society, the historian Yuval Noah Harari has said.

He told Hardtalk's Stephen Sackur: "People could look back in 100 years and identify the coronavirus epidemic as the moment when a new regime of surveillance took over, especially surveillance under the skin which I think is maybe the most important development of the 21st Century, is this ability to hack human beings."

Biometric data would create a system that knew human beings better than they knew themselves, he added.

https://youtu.be/gfVrin7Ybp8

Comment by Riaz Haq on May 6, 2020 at 1:23pm
The company ( Gilead) is also negotiating long-term voluntary licenses with several generic drugmakers in India and Pakistan to produce remdesivir for developing countries. Gilead will provide appropriate technology transfers to facilitate this production. Finally, the company is in active discussions with the Medicines Patent Pool, which Gilead has partnered with for many years, to license remdesivir for developing countries.
----------------

Since January, Gilead has worked with speed, care and diligence to prepare for the possibility that the company’s investigational antiviral remdesivir may be found effective against the virus that causes COVID-19. Recent clinical trial results and the decision by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration to issue an Emergency Use Authorization for remdesivir have highlighted the urgency of this work and the importance of planning for access to remdesivir globally.

Gilead’s overarching goal is to make remdesivir both accessible and affordable to governments and patients around the world, where authorized by regulatory authorities.  Given the urgent needs of patients globally, the company is pursuing the following strategy to further accelerate and maximize access to remdesivir:

Gilead is in discussions with some of the world’s leading chemical and pharmaceutical manufacturing companies about their ability, under voluntary licenses, to produce remdesivir for Europe, Asia and the developing world through at least 2022. The company is also negotiating long-term voluntary licenses with several generic drugmakers in India and Pakistan to produce remdesivir for developing countries. Gilead will provide appropriate technology transfers to facilitate this production. Finally, the company is in active discussions with the Medicines Patent Pool, which Gilead has partnered with for many years, to license remdesivir for developing countries.

To further facilitate access in developing countries during this acute health crisis, Gilead is in advanced discussions with UNICEF to utilize their extensive experience providing medicines to low- and middle-income countries during emergency and humanitarian crises to deliver remdesivir using its well-established distribution networks.

Close coordination of remdesivir manufacturing will be critical. This is why Gilead is working to build a consortium of manufacturing partners – to bring efforts together to help maximize global supply. Producing the drug requires scarce raw materials, with their own lengthy production time, and specialized manufacturing capabilities with limited global capacity. Any disruption to the supply chain impacting these scarce raw materials and other manufacturing inputs could reduce the amount of remdesivir produced and increase the time it takes to do so. 

Gilead is grateful to all its colleagues at health agencies and organizations around the world for their valuable input and insight, which have helped guide the company’s strategy.  The company looks forward to keeping its partners and the public updated as plans move forward.

-----------
Comment by Riaz Haq on May 8, 2020 at 5:00pm

#Pakistan #COVID 1166 helpline fielding 70,000 calls a day.
Call agents are trained on #coronavirus by Pakistan's National Institute of Health in #Islamabad. #PTI Government's Sehat Tahaffuz helpline is supported by #UNICEF, #WHO and Gates Foundation. https://www.unicef.org/stories/call-1166-covid-19-helpline-centre-p...

“How can I help you?” Pause. “Have you travelled out of the country recently?” Pause. “Please stay on the line. I am connecting you to a doctor.”

The young woman reassuring someone on the other end of the line is Sadia Saleem (pictured above), a call agent at the ‘Sehat Tahaffuz (meaning health protection in Urdu) 1166’ helpline centre in Islamabad, Pakistan.

Originally set up for parents and caregivers to get support and information about polio and other vaccines supported by UNICEF and partners, the helpline is now being inundated with tens of thousands of calls every day about the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

As part of its emergency response to the COVID-19 outbreak, the government has expanded the centre to help people get information on how to stay safe and connect them to a doctor when required.


“I received a phone call from a 75-year-old man this morning. He was so scared and confused because of the coronavirus situation. He asked if sunbathing could help him stay protected from the virus,” said Sadia. [It can't.] “I explained to him the symptoms of the virus and the preventive measures. He seemed relieved and thanked me.”

Sadia is one of 250 call agents currently staffing the helpline which operates in shifts, from 8:00 am to midnight every day, seven days a week.

More than 80 per cent of calls received every day at the helpline are related to basic information on COVID-19, such as symptoms.

“I’ve been working for the 1166 helpline since its inception. It’s stressful work, but I feel proud that I’m serving the people during this challenging time,” said Sadia. “In addition to receiving reliable information such as the symptoms of coronavirus and the contact information for the testing facility, I think most people feel some comfort just speaking with someone from the health system.”

“Initially, we were receiving about 1,000 calls a day. During the National Polio Immunization Campaign in February 2020 for example, people were calling to report missed children, clarify doubts about vaccines and lodge complaints when health and vaccine services were not working,” said Huma Shaukat, a Helpline Liaison Officer.

However, since the outbreak of COVID-19, the amount of calls has increased dramatically, to about 50,000 to 70,000 calls a day.

The number of calls grew to such an extent that the government stepped in to assign additional resources. The Prime Minister’s Office extended support to recruit an additional 165 agents and the National Institute of Health assigned 10 more doctors to the technical team.

Dr. Rabia Basri is one of the doctors working at the helpline. “Every day I receive about 40 calls, some last as long as 20 minutes,” said Dr. Rabia. “These are difficult times for everyone. I often advise people about personal hygiene and physical distancing, and if they are having symptoms, help connect them with a hospital for the coronavirus test and further medical support.”

At the helpline centre, television screens mounted on the wall display real-time information about incoming calls and graph representing the number of calls.

All call agents undergo a comprehensive training on COVID-19 by the National Institute of Health where they learn about the virus. These trainings are then followed by sessions on the helpline technology and interpersonal communication.

“The training and commitment of the call agents are very important. Otherwise the helpline will not work,” said Huma.

Many precautions are in place to make it a healthy work environment for agents and prevent the spread of COVID-19 – including checking individual temperatures at the entrance of the helpline building, providing masks to all agents and ensuring a supply of hand sanitizer.

Comment by Riaz Haq on May 14, 2020 at 5:31pm

Pakistan firm to produce only effective drug against Covid-19

https://tribune.com.pk/story/2221205/1-pakistan-firm-produce-effect...

As the world grapples with the novel coronavirus pandemic, there has been little good news in terms of a cure. Of all the drugs tried against Covid-19, only one – Remdesivir – has shown signs of effectiveness. Unfortunately, that too is in short supply.

In the days to come, however, Pakistan will play vital role in the effort to scale up production of the potentially lifesaving drug. The US-based pharmaceutical firm that manufactures it has entered into a non-exclusive licensing agreement with Pakistan’s Ferozsons Laboratories along with four Indian companies to manufacture and distribute Remdesivir to 127 nations to fight the pandemic. The countries are nearly all low-income and lower-middle income ones that face significant obstacles to healthcare access.

“Under the licensing agreements, the companies have a right to receive a technology transfer of the Gilead manufacturing process for Remdesivir to enable them to scale up production more quickly. The licensees also set their own prices for the generic product they produce,” Gilead Sciences, the firm that manufactures Remdesivir, said.
The company also said in a press release that the licences were royalty-free until the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the end of the public health emergency or a vaccine was approved.

The countries Ferozson’s Laboratories and the four Indian firms will be allowed to distribute Remdisivir to include regional ones like Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka along with various others in Central and South East Asia, Africa and South America.

Gilead Sciences had earlier warned that there was only enough Remdesivir in the world for about 200,000 patients. While the drug isn’t a certain cure for Covid-19, rigorous trials have shown it can shorten a patient’s hospital stay by about four days, freeing up vital medical capacity for others suffering from the disease.

Comment by Riaz Haq on May 15, 2020 at 7:47am

#Pakistan: #COVID19 drug production to start "within weeks," says CEO of Ferozsons Ltd, which will produce the drug. Pakistan will be among the first 3 countries in the world to produce #remdesevir for domestic use & export to 127 nations. #pharmaceutical https://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2020/05/15/world/asia/15reuters-hea...

Pakistan will soon start production of the antiviral drug remdesivir, which has shown promise in treating the novel coronavirus, the country's top health official and a pharmaceutical company's chief executive announced on Friday.

Production should start "within weeks," said Osman Khalid Waheed, the chief executive of Ferozsons Laboratories Ltd, which will produce the drug. He spoke at a news conference alongside Pakistan's de facto health minister, Zafar Mirza.

"Pakistan will be among the first three countries in the world where it will not only be produced but will also be exported to the whole world," Mirza said. It will be exported to 127 countries, he said.

Remdesivir, a drug developed by Gilead Sciences, has grabbed attention as one of the most promising treatments for COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus, which has killed more than 300,000 people.


To expand its access, Gilead said it signed non-exclusive licensing pacts https://in.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-gilead-science... with five generic drugmakers based in India and Pakistan, allowing them make and sell remdesivir for 127 countries.

"It is a commitment by us and Gilead that this medicine could be produced at minimum cost and make it most accessible," Waheed said.

Pakistan has recorded 37,218 COVID-19 cases and 803 deaths. Lockdowns to curb the disease's spread are forecast to will cause the country's economy to shrink 1% to 1.5% in 2020.

Despite a rising rate of infection, Pakistan began lifting those lockdowns last week, primarily to avert an economic meltdown.

Comment by Riaz Haq on June 7, 2020 at 7:53am

#COVID19 drugs from #India, #Pakistan, #Bangladesh: #Remdesivir, #camostat, #avipiravir, #HQC and others. Arsenal of repurposed #antivirals being brought to bear on SARS-CoV-2 to treat pneumonia, sepsis, respiratory failure, and acute respiratory distress https://gn24.ae/9fb1d352f738000

Dubai: An arsenal of existing antivirals are being brought to bear against SARS-CoV-2. Most of them are manufactured in South Asia — primarily India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

It has emerged that COVID-19 is not an "atypical pneumonia" (lung disease). As it is, there's no therapy approved for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. The prestigious medical journal The Lancet has pointed out, that the spectrum of disease kicked off by COVID0-19 is “broad”.

“Among hospitalised patients with COVID-19, pneumonia, sepsis, respiratory failure, and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) are frequently encountered complications,” it reported.

Moreover, it states: “Activation of coagulation pathways during the immune response to infection results in overproduction of proinflammatory cytokines leading to multiorgan injury.”

Comment by Riaz Haq on June 12, 2020 at 7:14am

DRAP approves first made-in-#Pakistan testing kit for #COVID19 developed by the scientists at NUST & ASAB in collaboration with Wuhan Institute of Virology #China, DZIF #Germany, #Columbia University & Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP) Rawalpindi. https://tribune.com.pk/story/2241311/1-drap-approves-first-made-pak...

The Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) has approved the first indigenously made testing kit for novel coronavirus, developed by the scientists at National University of Science and Technology (NUST) Attaur Rahman School of Applied Biosciences (ASAB).

The news was shared on Twitter by Federal Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry, where he congratulated the developing team.

“You people have made us proud… this will bring significant cost reduction of Covid-19 tests and will also save huge import bill,” he wrote on his official handle.

The testing kit is developed in collaboration with Wuhan Institute of Virology China, DZIF Germany, Columbia University USA and Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP) Rawalpindi.

These testing kits will cost one-fourth the current price for the kits used for detecting the Covid-19.

According to NUST, these assays have been developed at a time when the world is in the grip of an unprecedented pandemic novel coronavirus – and scientists and researchers are sparing no effort to ascertain remedies to this incurable disease.

According to the NUST, the assays include both conventional and real time PCR-based methods of Sybr Green and Taqman.

The testing kits have been efficiently tested on laboratory controls and patient sample.

These indigenously established assays are robust, sensitive to the target, and would soon be available at one fourth the price of imported ones.

The team comprises Associate Professor Dr Aneela Javed and Assistant Professor Dr Ali Zohaib from NUST ASAB, who have been working on establishment of these assays for diagnosis of the pandemic the country is bracing itself for.

Comment by Riaz Haq on June 15, 2020 at 9:51am

#Pakistan receives #PPE #export orders worth $100M. Orders include N95 #masks, gloves, goggles, face shields, gowns, shoes cover and bed sheets. Exports could top $500 million in the coming months as the #COVID19 #pandemic sweeps the world. #coronavirus http://v.aa.com.tr/1877892

Pakistan has bagged export orders worth $100 million for its domestically manufactured personal protective equipment (PPE), a government official said.

Fawad Chaudhry, the minister for science and technology, said many countries are interested in Pakistani equipment, and the figure could top $500 million in the coming months.

Pakistan’s Federal Cabinet earlier this month approved exports of PPE despite complaints by doctors and healthcare workers of shortages of protective gear including face masks, gloves, and overalls.

"Now we are producing masks including N95 masks, gloves, goggles or face shields, gowns, shoes cover and bed sheets for our hospitals, and even importing to other countries," Chaudhry told Anadolu Agency on Monday.

He said Pakistan also developed a coronavirus diagnostic kit, which has been approved by the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan. "This is a big achievement," he said, adding that the kits are entirely domestically produced, which will "help cut our import bill."

So far, Pakistan has imported and received PPE and testing kits mostly from its Chinese allies.

"We are importing the kits from China at the moment but when the commercial production of our kits begins, we will not have to import," Chaudhry said, adding that the kits are low priced, which could bring the cost of virus tests to a one-third.

Chaudhry praised the efforts of experts at the National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST) Islamabad who developed the testing kits, saying he is proud of them.

"The kits developed by our experts are better than the imported kits, and have over 90% accuracy," he said.

Pakistan, the second worst-hit in South Asia, has registered a total of 144,478 virus cases, including 2,729 deaths and 53,721 recoveries.

Many lawmakers, including two former prime ministers, an opposition leader, and several state ministers, have contracted the virus, forcing them to self-quarantine.

The World Health Organization has called on the government to implement “intermittent” lockdowns to counter a surge in infections after relaxing restrictions in recent weeks.

Comment by Riaz Haq on June 18, 2020 at 4:12pm

How #EdTech is reshaping the #education landscape in #Pakistan. Most of startups (9/10) have witnessed a 1.5X to 3X increase in users since the #COVID19 #lockdown. $2.65 million has been raised by 6 edtech startups in a total of 8 deals. https://www.menabytes.com/edtech-pakistan/ via @MENAbytes

In a study by Invest2Innovate earlier this year, out of 13 edtech startups that participated, 54 [percent expressed that they were expecting to raise funding despite the pandemic, while 53 percent reported having a cash runway of 6-12 months. Additionally, 77 percent of the edtech startups that participated had also pivoted their business model in some way due to Covid-19 and 85 percent already had an alternative offering for the market according to a survey that was conducted back in March. The majority of the edtech startups surveyed (9/10) for this newsletter reported a 20 percent – 100 percent growth in users during the past 3 months. Similarly, most of these startups (9/10) witnessed a 1.5X to 3X increase in the amount of usage since the lockdown was implemented. See the figure above for details. A combination of these factors makes edtech an exciting and potentially lucrative sector for investors.

Well-funded edtech startups in Asia & comparison with Pakistan

Deal flow data collected previously by i2i shows that a total of $2.65 million has been raised by 6 edtech startups in a total of 8 deals. The highest amount of investment on this list is attributed to the Knowledge Platform which raised around $2 million in 2019. The findings also showed that with the exception of Dot&Line and Knowledge Platform, all investments were raised from either local or international angel investors. Many edtech startups have either won grants, awards, or have partnered with development funds, which are not accounted for in this data. Since the sample size is quite small (while it is still representative of the universe of edtech startups in Pakistan), it’s important to see if the findings hold up with larger sample size.

Analysis of deal flow data of some well-funded edtech startups in Asia shows that China comes out on top in terms of amounts of investments. Startups such as Zhangmen, Dada, KnowBox, VIPKid, iLearning Education Group, and Gaosi Education raised investment that ranged from $140 million to $350 million.

The only two non-Chinese edtech startups that came close to the size of investments raised by Chinese startups in 2019/2020 were Indian BYJU’s ($181 million) and Indonesian Ruangguru ($150 million) – with Byju’s raising twice from different investors in 2019 alone. BYJU’s makes an interesting case study for many startups in South Asia that are trying to raise investment and scale their companies.

While several factors have contributed to the success of the company, one factor that really stands out is their lessons that were created using various board-approved syllabi from different states in India. Roughly 90 percent of the content is evidently common across curricula, which helps it map the same content into varied curricula, making the solution highly scalable.

Similarly, other Asian countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam, etc. are also producing a significant number of edtech startups. Many of these have managed to raise substantial amounts in investment over the past few years, particularly in Indonesia.

The Middle East – while not too prolific when it comes to quantity of edtech startups – accounted for two companies that raised a significant amount last year. Noon Academy is one of these startups (based in Saudi Arabia), which raised an investment of $8.6 million in 2019, while another EdTech startup based in Dubai called Almentor raised $4.5 million the same year. See the figure below for details.

Comment by Riaz Haq on June 20, 2020 at 6:55am

#Pakistan signs $1.5 billion loan agreements with IFIs (#WorldBank, #ADB, #AIIB) to strengthen #COVID19 response & prevent long-term damage to the productive capacity of the country's #economy. https://profit.pakistantoday.com.pk/2020/06/19/pakistan-signs-1-5bn... via @Profitpk

Pakistan on Friday signed three financing agreements worth $1.5 billion with three International Financial Institutions (IFIs) — World Bank (WB), Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) — to aid its anti-Covid response, besides strengthening healthcare and education systems.

Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan also witnessed the signing ceremony of the agreements in Islamabad, said a press release issued by the PM office.

Under the agreement for Covid-19 Active Response and Expenditure Support (CARES) Programme, the ADB would extend financial support of $500 million with the objective to support the Pakistani government’s efforts in strengthening its healthcare system and mitigating the socioeconomic impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The AIIB would also extend co-financing of $500 million for the CARES Programme to augment the government’s efforts to mitigate the direct and indirect impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“By supporting industries and vulnerable groups that have been hard hit by Covid-19, this financing will help mitigate the economic shock and social impacts the country is currently facing,” said AIIB vice president, investment operations, Konstantin Limitovskiy, in a statement. “Preventing long-term damage to the productive capacity of the economy is essential. AIIB’s joint efforts with the international community are targeting this need,” he added.

The third agreement titled “Securing Human Investments to Foster Transformation (SHIFT) worth $500 million aims at strengthening the civil registration and vital statistics, health and education systems essential for human capital accumulation.

Ministry of Economic Affairs Secretary Noor Ahmed signed the three loan agreements on behalf of the Government of Pakistan while World Bank Country Director Patchamuthu Illangovan and ADB Country Director Xiaohong Yang signed agreements on behalf of the WB, ADB, and AIIB.

The disbursement of $1,500 million will be made to Pakistan in the next few days.

Comment

You need to be a member of PakAlumni Worldwide: The Global Social Network to add comments!

Join PakAlumni Worldwide: The Global Social Network

Pre-Paid Legal


Twitter Feed

    follow me on Twitter

    Live Traffic Feed


    Sponsored Links

    South Asia Investor Review
    Investor Information Blog

    Haq's Musings
    Riaz Haq's Current Affairs Blog

    Please Bookmark This Page!




    Blog Posts

    Pakistani Student Enrollment in US Universities Hits All Time High

    Pakistani student enrollment in America's institutions of higher learning rose 16% last year, outpacing the record 12% growth in the number of international students hosted by the country. This puts Pakistan among eight sources in the top 20 countries with the largest increases in US enrollment. India saw the biggest increase at 35%, followed by Ghana 32%, Bangladesh and…

    Continue

    Posted by Riaz Haq on April 1, 2024 at 5:00pm

    Agriculture, Caste, Religion and Happiness in South Asia

    Pakistan's agriculture sector GDP grew at a rate of 5.2% in the October-December 2023 quarter, according to the government figures. This is a rare bright spot in the overall national economy that showed just 1% growth during the quarter. Strong performance of the farm sector gives the much needed boost for about …

    Continue

    Posted by Riaz Haq on March 29, 2024 at 8:00pm

    © 2024   Created by Riaz Haq.   Powered by

    Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service