India on Saturday informed the government that the hope to produce Covaxin against Covid-19 in Bangladesh is ‘still not lost’.
Bangladesh’s icddr,b and India’s Bharat Biotech entered into an agreement in December for the Phase-III clinical trials of the Covaxin, but the actual trials are still awaiting approval, according to a note verbale sent to the foreign ministry by the Indian High Commission in Dhaka.
Covaxin has shown efficacy of over 80 percent, comparable to that of Oxford AstraZeneca Covishield, which is being used by Bangladesh.
But the Serum Institute of India which is producing the Oxford’s vaccine cannot ramp up its production due to US’s restrictions on raw materials export. So, it could not keep its promise to deliver the expected doses to Bangladesh.
So far, Bangladesh received 7 million doses of Covishield through its contract plus 3.3 million as bilateral partnership gifts. This is the largest amount sent from India to any country, the Indian High Commission earlier said on Thursday, following media reports about the uncertainty of getting Covid-19 vaccines from India.
Bharat Biotech ramped up its Covaxi production as it uses India-based raw materials.
“If the co-production of Covaxin, as offered by India, had begun in Bangladesh using our immense scaling up capacity and presence of multiple manufacturers, ‘Made in Bangladesh' vaccines would be administered in our country and to friendly countries as well.
“Something every Bangladeshi would be proud of. But that opportunity is still not lost, provided we make the best use of it,” according to the note verbale.
The Bangladesh Post could not reach the chairman of the Bangladesh Medical Research Council (BMRC) Prof Syed Modasser Ali for comments on the issue on Saturday.
An official of the BMRC, however, told Bangladesh Post that they had reviewed the proposal to place at the national research ethics committee.
“But before our submission, we have been told (by the higher authority) not to proceed further. We postponed the (ethics committee) meeting which was supposed to be held on January 17,” the official, who cannot be named, said.
Earlier, India said it has been trying to meet its internal demand as well as obligations made under contractual agreements by Indian companies to produce more of the vaccines being manufactured at the Serum Institute of India, Pune and by other prominent vaccines manufacturers.
“We have said we would do our best to meet everyone's needs, subject to limits of production, domestic demands, and other obligations. We will continue to do our best to support the vaccine rollout in our neighborhood countries, but it is important to bear in mind that there is a huge wave of the pandemic underway in India,” the High Commission had said.
“In short, we can only share what is actually available. And the fact is that there is a huge amount of demand and not enough supply. As production is increased to meet the increased demand in India and globally, it will be possible to increase supplies.”
Since late last year, India and Bangladesh have been working to bring to the people of Bangladesh safe and easily available vaccines. The fact that people in Bangladesh have been fully vaccinated with the second dose is testament to that.
Bangladesh got the Oxford’s vaccine from Serum on January 21 on priority basis as part of India’s neighbourhood first policy.
Bangladesh is also exploring options to bring Chinese and Russian vaccines in Bangladesh.
Foreign Minister Dr. AK Abdul Momen recently said that Russia had agreed with them for co-production of the Sputnik-V in Dhaka.
