Staff Reporter :
Health Secretary MA Mannan has hoped that Bangladesh would get free coronavirus vaccine, if it is finally invented, at the early stage.
He made the remarks at a virtual meeting of the advisory committee to tackle Covid-19 spread on Monday.
The health secretary said the World Health Organization (WHO) has a rule that countries having people with a per capita income of less than $4,000 will get the vaccine free of cost. “As per the rule, we’ll get it free of charge. “We’ll try to get it at the very first stage.” He said a task force would be formed to control the chaotic situation in the health sector. “The image crisis in the health sector needs to be addressed. Proper healthcare must be ensured.” Mannan urged both Covid and non-Covid patients to come to hospitals for receiving treatment.
Director General of the Health Directorate Prof Abul Kalam Azad was present at the meeting.
Acknowledging the deep crisis in the health sector, Kalam said, “We all have to work together to overcome this crisis.”
Meanwhile, Bangladesh Medical Research Council (BMRC) has given International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b) approval for conducting the Phase-3 trial of a Chinese corona vaccine in Bangladesh.
The approval was given as the icddr,b submitted an application for conducting the vaccine trial in the country.
The vaccine is likely to be inoculated to the healthcare workers of eight Covid-19 dedicated hospitals in Dhaka at the initial stage. Bangladesh announced to join the trial of vaccines on May 10 last. An inactivated COVID-19 vaccine candidate developed by the Institute of Medical Biology under the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences has entered phase-2 clinical trials in China, the Science and Technology Daily reported Saturday.
The phase-2 trials, which further evaluated the immunogenicity and safety of the vaccine in humans, are conducted in the southwestern province of Yunnan.
So far, five COVID-19 vaccine candidates have been approved for clinical trials in China, accounting for 40 percent of the total vaccines in clinical trials worldwide, according to the Ministry of Science and Technology.
China’s military received the greenlight to use a COVID-19 vaccine developed by its research unit and CanSino Biologics <6185.HK> after clinical trials proved it was safe and showed some efficacy. The Ad5-nCoV is one of China’s eight vaccine candidates approved for human trials at home and abroad for the respiratory disease caused by the new coronavirus. The shot also won approval for human testing in Canada.
China’s Central Military Commission approved the use of the vaccine by the military on June 25 for a period of one year, CanSino said in a filing. The vaccine candidate was developed jointly by CanSino and a research institute at the Academy of Military Science (AMS).
“The Ad5-nCoV is currently limited to military use only and its use cannot be expanded to a broader vaccination range without the approval of the Logistics Support Department,” CanSino said, referring to the Central Military Commission department which approved the military use of the vaccine.
CanSino declined to disclose whether the innoculation of the vaccine candidate is mandatory or optional, citing commercial secrets, in an email to Reuters.
The military approval follows China’s decision earlier this month to offer two other vaccine candidates to employees at state-owned firms travelling overseas.
The Phase 1 and 2 clinical trials of the CanSino’s vaccine candidate showed it has the potential to prevent diseases caused by the coronavirus, which has killed half a million people globally, but its commercial success cannot be guaranteed, the company said.
Separately, AMS received an approval earlier this month to test its second experimental coronavirus vaccine in humans.
No vaccine has yet been approved for commercial use against the illness caused by the new coronavirus, but over a dozen vaccines from more than 100 candidates globally are being tested in humans.
