Securing Vaccines: Local production with own funds

The government is considering whether to locally produce Covid-19 vaccines with its own funds as the supply of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine from India's Serum Institute remains uncertain.

The production will be funded by the Tk 10,000 crore allocated in this year's budget to combat the pandemic.

The government funds will be spent for either locally manufacturing the vaccine with the developers' assistance or an arrangement to co-produce with the inventors.

Bangladesh is trying to source vaccines as the country's mass inoculation programme stumbled following India's restriction on export of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine produced by Serum.

Administration of the first dose has been postponed and the second dose is uncertain for 13 lakh people as India has yet to confirm when the shipment might arrive in Dhaka.

The Bangladesh government approved on principle the local co-production of Russia's Sputnik V and China's Sinopharm vaccines involving Bangladeshi drug makers.

The drug administration yesterday issued authorisation for emergency use of Sinopharm.

"We expect to receive five lakh doses of Sinopharm as a gift in two weeks," said Maj Gen Mahbubur Rahman, director general of the Directorate General of Drug Administration (DGDA).

There is no legal restriction now on the import and use of Sinopharm in Bangladesh.

Earlier on Tuesday, the government sought an immediate supply of the vaccine from China during the first meeting of the China-led initiative for Covid-19 vaccines.

On the same day, the DGDA issued emergency use authorisation to Russia's Sputnik V.

"The price has not been fixed yet. It will be fixed through government-to-government negotiation," the DG said.

Bangladesh is 15th among the 20 Asian countries in terms of vaccination. The country has administered 3.3 doses per 100 people while Palau is at the top of the list with 74.3 doses, according to the Asian Development Outlook 2021.

Despite repeated calls from the experts not to rely on a single source for vaccines, the government did not initially seek the vaccines developed by China and Russia because neither had WHO approval.

Besides, the international bodies lent funds to Bangladesh to buy only the vaccines recognised by the WHO or three Stringent Regulatory Authorities.

The World Bank lent $500 million for buying vaccines under the "Covid-19 Emergency Response and Pandemic Preparedness'' project.

The Asian Development Bank will lend $940 million to Bangladesh for the same purpose by the end of May.

During a press briefing on Wednesday, ADB Country Director Manmohan Parkash stressed the need for production capabilities within the country.

"Vaccination will not be a one-year thing," he said.

There are good Bangladeshi drugmakers that can produce the vaccines with the vaccine developers.

"If that happens, it will be a long-term and sustainable solution," he said.

GOVERNMENT WORKING ON CO-PRODUCTION

"Three pharmaceutical companies have vaccine producing capacity. One of the companies can produce eight million doses a month. The protocol is not fixed yet," Maj Gen Mahbubur Rahman said.

A DGDA official, however, said the co-production will take several months to begin.

The Sinopharm is a double dose vaccine three weeks apart and has an efficacy of 79.34 percent, according to the New York Times Covid-19 vaccine tracker.

Created by the Beijing Institute of Biological Products, this vaccine was put into clinical trials by the state-owned Chinese company Sinopharm.

The World Health Organization will decide next week whether it can be approved for emergency use.

China has already stockpiled more than a million doses of the vaccine and is using it at home. Besides, it is also exporting to many countries in Asia, South America and Africa.