News Desk :
The government is contacting China and Russia for the vaccines as an alternative while continuing its efforts to bring the consignments of vaccines it already bought from Serum, said Health Minister Zahid Maleque on Monday.
The minister told bdnews24.com that Chinese company Sinopharm and Russia’s Sputnik had proposed to supply vaccines to Bangladesh, said the health minister.
‘As Bangladesh secured the AstraZeneca vaccine earlier, it stopped trying to purchase the Chinese and Russian vaccines’.
Now it is reconsidering the options of buying Russian and Chinese vaccines, added he.
Maleque said, the government has spoken to the ambassadors of Russia and China and asked them to inform if they can supply the vaccines.
The health minister also informed that the government has plans to produce the coronavirus vaccine, developed by the UK’s University of Oxford and Anglo-Swedish company AstraZeneca, in Bangladesh.
The local pharmaceutical companies will make the vaccine in their factories if they get the raw materials.
“The government wants to tap the potential and produce the coronavirus vaccine at home.”
The pharmaceutical companies have asked the government to initiate the process by approaching the bulk or seed vaccine-producing company, said Maleque.
“We already wrote to AstraZeneca to give us the raw materials. We told them that we have vaccine-making facilities and can use them. We can even export and meet their demand.”
In March last year, the lab of the Directorate General of Drug Administration that handles chemical tests, got the WHO approval to test the standard of drugs in Bangladesh, the minister said.
The other part involving biological tests is still awaiting the approval. The government has requested the WHO for a quick approval of the lab section.
It is possible to produce the coronavirus vaccine at home and they want to do it, said Abdul Muktadir, managing director of Incepta Pharmaceuticals. Incepta can produce the vaccine if they get the raw materials. They wrote to Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson, he said.
“These four companies have the seed and bulk for the vaccine. We are capable of producing vaccines from the seeds, as it is the main material. We wrote to the companies but they haven’t responded.” The vaccine-producing companies must have thought that a few companies will be enough to produce the vaccine meeting the global demand, Muktadir said.
“As the global demand rose suddenly, I believe they will need more producers. Maybe they’ll look for more companies. Let’s see while we keep trying.”
Bangladesh rolled out the vaccine, manufactured by the world’s largest vaccine producer the Serum Institute of India, on Feb 7.
As many as 5.4 million people have received the first dose of the vaccine as of Saturday, while more than 6.8 million people registered for immunisation in the mass inoculation drive.
The government aims to vaccinate 130 million people or 80 per cent of the total population in a bid to prevent the coronavirus infection from spreading.
Under the COVAX, Bangladesh would receive 68 million doses of coronavirus vaccine to cater 20 per cent of the total population, while the government needs to buy the rest.
Bangladesh signed an agreement in November to buy 30 million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine from Serum.
It is expected to receive five million doses per month under the deal. Accordingly, it received 5.0 million doses in January, but the consignment dropped to 2.0 million doses in February when the global demand increased. The Indian government also provided 3.2 million doses of the vaccine as gift.
