Govt moves to procure Sinovac
After Sinopharm, the government has started the process of procuring coronavirus vaccine from another Chinese company Sinovac to inoculate most of the country's 163 million population.
As part of the move, the Directorate General of Drug Administration (DGDA) has approved Sinovac's Covid-19 vaccine "CoronaVac" on June 3. Incepta Vaccine Ltd, as a local agent of Sinovac, applied for its approval for emergency use in Bangladesh.
"We are communicating with Sinovac and, as part of our discussion, we have given approval for emergency usage authorisation. Now our discussion will progress further," Health Minister Zahid Maleque told The Daily Star yesterday.
"We will procure vaccines from Sinovac if the price is affordable, if the terms and conditions are favourable and the delivery timing matches our demand."
He said many countries have already relaxed lockdowns and lifted restrictions of movement after massive vaccination drives.
"We have to vaccinate our people and for that we need a massive amounts of vaccine. So we are exploring all potential sources."
The CoronaVac is the fifth vaccine to be given the emergency use authorisation. It received the authorisation in 22 other countries already. On June 1, the World Health Organization also issued an Emergency Use Listing status to the CoronaVac.
This double-dose vaccine can be administered with an interval of two to four weeks on people aged 18 and above. It can be preserved in 2-8 degree Celsius temperature.
Contacted, Incepta Pharmaceuticals Managing Director Abdul Muktadir said the company had just forwarded the Sinovac's application on behalf of them.
"The government shall directly interact and purchase vaccines from Sinovac without any intervention by Incepta. How the vaccines from Sinovac would be procured would be solely up to the government," he added.
Director General of the DGDA Maj Gen Md Mahbubur Rahman said after this product registration, there will be no bar to administering Sinovac vaccine in the country.
About the Sinopharm vaccine, the minister said they are in discussion and are hoping that the procurement deal would be signed soon.
Meanwhile, Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen said discussions with Russia regarding coproduction and procurement deals of the Sputnik V vaccine are at the final stages.
"But the health ministry will say when the treaty will be completed. We have just facilitated the discussion," he told journalists after Russian ambassador to Bangladesh Alexander I Ignatov held a farewell meeting at the minister's residence.
In another development, health officials said they will start administering the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine as soon as the diluent arrives.
"The diluent [used to administer the vaccine] will come on Monday, after which the date of administration will be finalised," Md Shamsul Haque, line director of the Directorate General of Health Services, told The Daily Star.
The vaccine will be administered at four vaccination centres in the capital and those who have already completed registration and are waiting to be vaccinated will get the jabs, he said.
A consignment of 106,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine reached Dhaka last Monday.
The government received the vaccine under the global vaccine-sharing initiative called Covax.
The DGDA approved the emergency use of the Pfizer vaccine on May 27.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh is also supposed to receive six lakh Sinopharm vaccine doses as a gift from China by June 13. Earlier, on May 12, Bangladesh received a gift of five lakh doses of the vaccine,
The government has already started administering those doses to healthcare students on a priority basis.
Bangladesh suspended administering the first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine on April 26 due to a depleting stock. The administration of the second dose was also suspended in many places.
The mass inoculation started on February 7, with a target of vaccinating all its citizens aged 18 and above in phases. The government suspended the vaccination registration process on May 5.
The inoculation campaign stumbled after Serum Institute of India failed to ship Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines after cases surged there.
As per an agreement, Bangladesh was supposed to receive three crore shots of the vaccine in phases from January to June.
Serum delivered the first 50 lakh doses in January, but shipped only 20 lakh shots the following month. No shipment has been received since then.
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