Bangladesh needs the vaccines on time

The news of India banning the export of Oxford University-AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine for two months has justifiably created some serious concerns and confusion in Bangladesh. Will we or will we not receive the three crore doses of the much-sought-after vaccine from India's Serum Institute on time, as we have so far been led to believe?

According to Bangladesh's foreign minister, "as the deal was done on the basis of discussion at the highest level", i.e. between the prime ministers of the two countries, no ban that India implements will be applied to Bangladesh. And so, the first 50 lakh doses should come in next month as scheduled, and 50 lakh more doses should continue to come in every month until the three crore doses in total are delivered. The health minister too has reassured that to be the case. To that end, Bangladesh government is set to make half the payment in advance.

The source of the confusion has been a comment made by the CEO of Serum, who said that the vaccine had been granted emergency authorisation by the Indian regulator on the condition that Serum only gives the vaccine to the Indian government for the time being. On November 5, Serum Institute and Beximco Pharmaceuticals signed an agreement through which the three crore vaccines were to be delivered to Bangladesh. But if Serum is only allowed to give the vaccine to the Indian government, and not sell any in the private market, how is that supposed to affect the aforementioned deal?

In a statement released yesterday, however, the CEO of Serum communicated his company's intent to develop, manufacture and supply Covid-19 vaccines for India and the world. The statement further read: "Vaccines are a global public health good and they have the power to save lives"—and that export of vaccines is permitted to all countries. We hope that is indeed the case, and that Bangladesh gets the vaccines as per the original timetable.

The coronavirus pandemic has already done massive damage to Bangladesh, and the light at the end of the tunnel can emerge only from the quick availability and distribution of a safe and effective vaccine. The potential delivery of the vaccines is not just a trivial matter that can be ironed out over months. For Bangladesh, a solution has to be found as soon as possible.

With that in mind, we hope that India will honour its agreement with Bangladesh and deliver all the vaccines on time. However, as experts have suggested, when it comes to acquiring the vaccines, putting all our eggs in one basket is an unwise idea. And, therefore, the government should, first, figure out what is really going on with regards to India banning the exports of the vaccine from Serum Institute; and second, it should look for alternative sources either as a substitute in case something goes wrong with the deal, or in order to bring in even greater numbers of vaccine doses should the deal ultimately go through.