Globe Biotech Limited, a Bangladeshi pharmaceutical firm is hopeful of bringing the country’s first Covid-19 vaccine in the market by January 2021.
Getting on animal model success, the firm is preparing to start the vaccine’s trial on human body in the current month.
“Everything is going well with success so far. We are encouraged by success on animal body. By the way,
after completing all necessary procedure, we are hopeful to bring the vaccine in market by January. It will be a very good news for Bangladeshi people to fight the fatal virus,” Md. Harunur Rashid, Chairman of Globe Biotech Limited told The New Nation on Friday.
Harunur Rashid said, since Biotech is a Bangladeshi company, some people may not believe in our achievement, but when World Health Organisation (WHO) and respective authorities of Bangladesh find its efficiency, then everyone will be overwhelmed by our capabilities.
“We have the capacity to produce seven million vials of the vaccine if we finally get market authorisation from the Directorate General of Drug Administration (DGDA),” the company chairman said.
We have a world class laboratory in the city’s Tejgaon enriched with every facilities to develop a Covid-19 vaccine.
Harunur Rashid said, though the vaccine invented by UK’s Oxford University found some problems, we are not worried because our formula is totally different.
Two Bangladeshi origins Canadian Scientists Dr. Naznin Sultana and Dr. Kakon Nag are leading the team who are involved with the whole procedure of developing a Coronavirus vaccine.
“The Covid-19 vaccine, we have invented, has produced highly effective antibody in animal model against coronavirus spike protein. We have concluded the animal-model trial and we get the maximum level tighter value, that means antibody has been developed,” said Dr. Naznin Sultana, the Chief Scientist of Globe Biotech Limited.
As per the WHO directives, we have taken huge number of animals and had trials on them to get antibodies which is an encouraging success.
Dr. Naznin said that she will be the first volunteer to push the vaccine in her body.
There are huge support including financial assistance in the way to develop such a vaccine. We urge the government to support us to develop the country’s first vaccine.
The Official said that they will submit all protocols to Bangladesh Medical Research Council (BMRC) for the approval of starting the rest of the procedures including clinical trial.
She said we are not doing haste, yet if everything goes well, our vaccine will be available in market by next January.
Officials of the Globe Biotech said that they started the analysis of Covid-19 genome sequence since March and concluded the preliminary animal trial of the vaccine in June.
The firm conducted a press conference on July 2 announcing its efforts to develop a Covid-19 vaccine.
In the vaccine race, institutes in different countries such as AstraZeneca in the University of Oxford, Chinese Institute of Biotechnology of the Academy of Military Medical Sciences and the CinoVac of the same country and the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases are in the advanced stage.
