Bangladesh has approved the Russian Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine for emergency use, the director general for drug administration has said.
Maj Gen Md. Mahbubur Rahman told Bangladesh Post that an expert committee took the decision in a meeting on Tuesday after evaluating all the documents related to the vaccine including the clinical trials' outcomes.
He said they were expecting to buy 4 million doses of Sputnik V by May through direct ‘government to government’ mechanism. It will require two doses to complete the vaccination in a person. The interval between the doses can range from 21 days to 3 months.
The decision comes following the Serum Institute of India’s inability to deliver the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine on time.
The Sputnik V is the second vaccine to be approved for emergency use in Bangladesh. Earlier it was allowed only for the citizens of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine who are living in Bangladesh.
Russia is doing mass vaccination using the Sputnik V. The vaccine has been approved for emergency use in more than 50 countries. A peer-reviewed study published in The Lancet in February said the vaccine had an efficacy rate of 91.6 percent, higher than Oxford's vaccine.
The Serum Institute said it could not ramp up its production due to the shortage of raw materials after US’s restrictions.
The director general for drugs also said that they are also evaluating the efficacies of Chinese vaccines to allow in Bangladesh.
Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen on Tuesday in a separate briefing said that they sought documents from China for their vaccines.
“It will take two weeks to complete the process before bringing the vaccine in the country,” he said.
The Chinese government also informed that it would give 600,000 doses of Covid-19 vaccine to Bangladesh soon as a gift.
Bangladesh will receive 100,000 doses of Pfizer vaccine for Covid-19 in May through the Covax mechanism, spokesperson of the health directorate Dr Robed Amin earlier said, as the government was exploring options.
Covax or COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access is a global initiative aimed at equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines led by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, and the World Health Organization.
It pools vaccines from the producing countries to distribute to the poor and low income countries.
India, earlier, offered Bangladesh to produce Covaxin here in Dhaka. The Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin is comparable with Oxford’s vaccine in terms of efficacy.