Reza Mahmud :
The process of producing anti-covid vaccine in the country is still a far cry and therefore the experts have suggested to gear up the procedure to secure the countrymen from the lethal virus.
Public health experts said instead of the covid infection rate remaining below 5pc and more than 21 crore of the population vaccinated, the necessity of producing vaccines is enormous.
When contacted, Professor Dr. M. Muzaherul Huq, former Advisor of the World Health Organisation (WHO) told The New Nation on Wednesday, “Producing covid vaccine is highly important as we are yet to know how many boosters or vaccine doses we require to remain safe from Coronavirus.”
The research is on for vaccines which can give lifelong immunity with a single dose of vaccine or even nasal or oral vaccines, the Professor said.
“We are yet to know whether there will be a 4th wave or further waves waiting for engineering a attack on us until Corona is eliminated from not only Bangladesh, but from the world,” the expert said.
In this situation, the country initiated to manufacture its own vaccine with foreign technological assistance.
Sources said, as per the government plan, the vaccine will be manufactured by state-owned company Essential Drugs Company Limited (EDCL) in its Gopalgonj unit.
As part of the effort, the EDCL already signed an undisclosed or non-disclosure agreement (NDA) with US-based Diadic International for the production of vaccines in Bangladesh.
On the other hand, another Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between Chinese company Sinopharm, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Bangladesh and Incepta Vaccine Limited on August 16 last year to produce Chinese Sinopharm vaccine in the country.
The tripartite agreement on joint vaccine production was signed by Health Minister Zahid Maleque, Chinese Ambassador Li Jiming, and Abdul Muktadir, chairman of Incepta Vaccine Limited.
Health Minister Zahid Maleque said after signing the agreement that he believed that the vaccine production would be started soon.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister’s personal physician,
Ekushey Medalist Professor Emeritus. Dr. ABM Abdullah said on February 23 in a webinar that covid vaccine production would start in the country soon.
When contacted, Professor Dr. ABM Abdullah told The New Nation on Wednesday, “The effort has been taken to produce covid vaccine in state owned pharmaceutical in the country. It may take more time.”
He said that the health ministry can say concretely about it.
Contacted, Md. Ayub Hossain, Director and spokesperson of the Directorate General of Drug Administration (DGDA), told The New Nation that Md. Salah Uddin, Deputy Director of DGDA who is the concern officer of vaccine production can say about the matter.
When contacted, Md. Salah Uddin told The New Nation there is no concrete information right now in this regard.
When contacted, Professor Dr Abul Bashar Mohammad Khurshid Alam, Convener of Technical Committee on Vaccine Production and Director General of the Directorate General of Health Services told The New Nation on Wednesday, “We have taken interview of probable consultants. The appointment procedure of the consultant would start soon.”
The DG said, “Soon after completing the appointment, the covid vaccine production process would be started.”
According to the DGHS, about 12,46,91,912 people have been inoculated with covid vaccine first dose while, 8,47,95,656 persons got second shots and 38,73,276 people got the booster doses.
Health experts including Professor Dr. Muzaherul Haque said, Institute of Public Health (IPH) is one of the oldest vaccine producing institutes in Asia situated in Dhaka.
He said, due attention was not given by any government to modernise it with neither the modern day technology nor with properly trained people to run it.
The Professor said, “The institute has got its infrastructures as well as manpower. If it can be strengthened with properly trained manpower and modern day machines and technology we can start producing vaccines on a shorter period.”
It can better be done with technology transfer from a vaccine producing country. China can be a better choice for Bangladesh, as it will be more cost effective and we are already using Chinese vaccines.
On the other hand, Globe Biotech Limited, a Bangladeshi pharmaceuticals company, is currently developing its own vaccine Bangavax. The Bangladesh Medical Research Council (BMRC) approved Bangavax for human trials in November 2021. However, because of bureaucracy, the approval process has been delayed for several months, sources said.
