Staff Reporter :
Globe Biotech Limited, a pharmaceutical company in Bangladesh, is hopeful that the coronavirus vaccine will be available to all by December this year if everything goes well.
Dr Asif Mahmud, Research and Development Chief of Globe Biotech, said, they are optimistic to be successful in their next steps in developing a coronavirus vaccine in the country. And they have also alternative plans considering any situation. But they need the cooperation of the government.
He said that they would try the vaccine in the human body within a few weeks. If this step becomes successful, the corona vaccine will be available in the market next December, added the researcher.
Dr Asif said, “We did a tentative calculation. If we get the approval of testing the vaccine on animal body within September, then we will have time for three phases of clinical trial in October, November and December. And we hope that the vaccine will be available in December. But before that we will need the approval of the drugs department for supplying it in the market.”
Earlier on July 2, the company claimed that it had produced a Covid-19 vaccine and that the vaccine has shown primary effectiveness during trial on rabbits.
Officials of the company said they were preparing for the next stage of the trial, on humans, after getting approval from Bangladesh Medical and Research Council.
“Our vaccine is producing high affinity antibody in animal model against Covid-19 spike protein,” Asif Mahmud, in-charge of Research and Development of Globe Biotech, said in a briefing at the company’s office in the capital’s Tejgaon.
On June 10, scientists at Biotech administered their vaccine on rabbits, he said, adding that analysing their blood samples, they found antibody against the coronavirus.
“We will now perform a regulated animal trial for this vaccine. We will need six-eight weeks for that. Then we will go to Bangladesh Medical Research Council for [conducting] the human trial,” Asif Mahmud said. He said, adding research was not yet published in any journal.
Established in 2015, Globe Biotech has no product in its profile. Company Chairman Harunur Rashid, however, said it has six products, including two for treating cancer patients, in the pipeline.
In February, the World Health Organisation said it did not expect a vaccine for Covid-19 to become available in less than 18 months.
