The offer was made in a letter sent to NIH Executive Director Maj Gen Dr Aamer Ikram by the general manager of China Sinopharm International Corp., Li Can, who expressed the hope that "a successful clinical trial in Pakistan will make it one of [the] first few countries for the launch of a Covid-19 vaccine," reported Dawn News.

While confirming that he had received the letter on Wednesday, Dr Ikram told Dawn.com that although no action has so far been taken, the collaboration could be "a great thing for Pakistan."

"We want to increase the trend of clinical trials in the country. There are a number of laws before it can start; it has to be approved by the ethics committee, et al, but we will start when we get the clearance," he added.

However, a pharmacist and former secretary biological drugs of DRAP Dr. Obaid Ali as been quoted by The Nation saying that he "viewed that disclosure of preclinical data to demonstrate safety of human trial should be the first priority."

He said that preclinical and clinical risk mitigation strategies need to be in place, so that those enrolled in clinical trials may not experience to any potential unreasonable risk that can be avoided, reported The Nation.

“Data is required to evaluate theoretical risk for vaccine-induced conditions, which may be worse if subject catches infection in real time during trial,” he said.

Pakistan is an all-weather ally of China.

Ikram said the benefit of the clinical trials if being held in Pakistan is that in case the vaccine proves to be successful then the south Asian country will be able to procure it on a high-priority basis.

NIH is an autonomous organisation that operated under the country's Ministry of National Health Services.

The highly infectious disease, which is believed to have originated from China's Wuhan region, has now spread across the globe.

The disease has also hit Pakistan hard.

The number of COVID-19 positive cases in the country has touched 11429.

The country has reported 237 deaths.