Bangladesh should closely work with countries like China, Russia, Japan, South Korea, India, United Kingdom and United States of America in procuring and producing COVID-19 vaccine to combat the present pandemic and help bring back to normal life.
Japan has been the biggest development partner of Bangladesh since independence. South Korea has become a development partner in the last 40 years and China has been one of the major development and trading partners in the last 25 years.
Bangladesh will need to vaccinate 75-80 per cent of its total population in a bid to back normal life and as per of the present population, the country will need roughly 12 crore doses of vaccines.
By only depending on imported vaccines, Bangladesh is most unlikely to complete the total vaccine progrrame in the next 2/3 years.
While talking to this correspondent, several Bangladesh diplomats said negotiating skills in procuring covid-19 vaccines is important as several statements of Bangladesh policymakers regarding procurement of Chinese and Russian vaccines delayed the process.
Professor Dr Liaquat Ali and Director of Bangladesh Institute of Health Sciences (BIHS), and Chairman of Pharmacology Department of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU) Professor Md. Sayedur Rahman have expressed the views that Bangladesh should develop the capacity of producing COVID -19 vaccine locally to keep the vaccination programme uninterrupted.
Meanwhile, Beijing sent the first batch of 2.00 million vaccines to Dhaka as per agreement between Bangladesh and China.
Beijing will stand by Dhaka in combating new wave of pandemic by delivering the committed COVID-19 vaccines to Bangladesh shortly and producing the vaccine locally, sources in Beijing and Dhaka said.
Sources in Dhaka and Beijing while communicating with this correspondent said Bangladesh would maintain secrecy about the protocol of agreement with Beijing to ensure uninterrupted supply of vaccines and help local production capacity.
Meanwhile, Dhaka believes that Beijing will deliver its committed vaccine to Bangladesh in a bid to combat the deadly COVID-19 that hit the country as well as the rest of the world, sources in Dhaka and Beijing said.
“Chinese leaders have repeatedly said China will make its COVID 19 vaccines a global public good. More recently, they declared that they are indeed fulfilling the pledge by exporting and donating its COVID 19 vaccines around the world. China has fulfilled its pledge and will continue to do so,” said Bangladesh Ambassador to China Mahbub Uz Zaman while talking to The News Times.
China has provided more than 480 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to the world, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said on Friday.
Wang Wenbin said China is a firm believer in making COVID-19 vaccines a public good, and has provided the most vaccines to the world.
He said China has so far provided vaccines to nearly 100 countries, and announced that it has pledged to provide the first batch of 10 million doses of vaccines to COVAX.
Chinese vaccines are the first batch of vaccines obtained by many developing countries. China has carried out joint research and development and cooperative production with many developing countries, and supported relevant companies to cooperate with foreign parties in conducting the phase III clinical trials, Wang said.
He said the Chinese vaccines have gained a good reputation in the international community, adding that the safety and effectiveness of Chinese vaccines have been widely recognized.
“At present, more than 100 countries have approved the use of Chinese vaccines. The WHO has included China’s Sinopharm and Sinovac vaccines in the emergency use list,” Wang said, adding that more than 30 foreign leaders took the lead in taking Chinese vaccines.
Pledging that China will continue to contribute to the accessibility and affordability of vaccines in developing countries, the spokesperson urged all countries with the capability to act quickly, honor their commitments, and contribute to the equitable distribution and application of vaccines across the world
Meanwhile, Japanese drug maker Shionogi & Co. is planning to provide a coronavirus vaccine within the year if conditions are met, its president recently.
It would be the first domestically produced vaccine for the virus.
With COVID-19 vaccines developed by U.S. pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc. and other drugmakers already in use around the world, securing enough study participants for large-scale clinical trials has become a barrier for latecomers such as Shionogi.
Shionogi is currently discussing with the health ministry a framework that would enable the efficacy and safety of the vaccine to be evaluated even with small-scale trials.
The company hopes “to contribute to the early containment of the coronavirus pandemic through the concentrated investment of management resources,” Shionogi President Isao Teshirogi said during a virtual news conference.
It has already completed a production line capable of delivering vaccine doses for 10 million people per year, and plans to further increase capacity.
Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. said its domestic clinical trial has confirmed that a COVID-19 vaccine developed by U.S. partner Moderna Inc. helped increase antibodies in everyone who was vaccinated.
“No major safety concerns were reported,” Takeda Pharmaceutical said in a statement after submitting the result to a Japanese administrative body, the Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency.
South Korea is reportedly in talks with mRNA vaccine makers, including Pfizer Inc (NYSE: PFE) and Moderna Inc (NASDAQ: MRNA), to produce COVID-19 shots in the country.
The country is ready to offer the capacity to make up to 1 billion doses immediately, Reuters reports, citing a senior government official.
The plan, if agreed, would help ease the crunched supply of the shots, particularly in Asia, which lags North America and Europe in vaccine rollouts.
South Korea already has deals to locally produce three COVID-19 vaccines developed by Oxford University/AstraZeneca plc (NASDAQ: AZN), Novavax Inc (NASDAQ: NVAX), and Russia.
Meanwhile, China is providing vaccine aid to 80 countries and three international organizations, exporting vaccines to more than 40 countries, and cooperating with more than 10 nations in vaccine research, development and production, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson said recently..
China has joined COVAX and made a clear commitment to provide an initial 10 million doses of vaccine to meet urgent needs in developing countries, she added.
Meanwhile, Dhaka is working persistently with Beijing in procuring and producing COVID-19 vaccine in Bangladesh as the discussions are being conducted between the state-owned agencies and the concerned agency and authority of Bangladesh, said a top Bangladesh diplomat working in Beijing.
‘It may be mentioned that the vaccine procurement process in the current context between Bangladesh and China is a government driven -process. The discussions are being conducted between the state owned agencies and the concerned agency and authority of Bangladesh while taking the government’s interest into account. We are continuing discussions and making good progress in the procurement of Chinese vaccines . We hope that the agreement can be reached soon. Then we can give very concrete answers, said Bangladesh Ambassador to China Mahbub Uz Zaman while communicating with this correspondent.
The Bangladesh diplomat also said ‘We are currently in discussions with Sinopharm, the Chinese vaccine manufacturer for procurement of vaccines, it is difficult to say exactly at what date we can expect the vaccines to be supplied and exactly by what amount.
Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen held talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on the vaccine issue.
After the discussions, a consensus was reached on the following points ( 1) China will provide another 6 lacs doses of vaccines to Bangladesh as bilateral assistance ( 2 ) China will provide new medical supplies worth 5 million RMB to Bangladesh (3 ) China is willing to facilitate export of COVID 19 vaccines to Bangladesh . ( 4 ) China is willing to support local packaging of Chinese vaccines in Bangladesh . Talks are continuing in this regard between the Chinese vaccine manufacturers and Bangladeshi pharmaceutical and vaccine manufacturing plants . ‘
At the instructions of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, we have given top priority to procuring COVID 19 vaccines for our people. We are trying our utmost to ensure stable supplies of Chinese vaccines in cooperation with the Chinese authorities .
We are working as a team through our engagements with the Foreign Ministry of Dhaka, Health Ministry of Bangladesh, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Beijing and the concerned Chinese vaccine manufacturers to achieve our objectives, said Bangladesh Ambassador to China Mahbub Uz Zaman Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has instructed stakeholders concerned in this regard as part of her commitment to continue the massive vaccination in the country
Meanwhile, China delivered 11,00,000 doses of Sinopharm vaccine as a gift to Bangladesh recently to help it cope with a shortage.
Bangladesh, a nation of 160 million people, is in desperate need after India banned exports of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines produced by the Serum Institute of India because of its own devastating surge in infections.
Bangladesh has already approved the Chinese vaccines after the World Health Organization has recently listed the Sinopharm for emergency use globally.
Bangladesh received about 7 million doses from the Indian institute, but its deal had called for 30 million doses to be delivered by June. Bangladesh already suspended administering the first dose of vaccines. Some few hundreds of thousands of people are due their second dose but would be left out if new doses do not arrive soon.
Bangladesh has attempted to diversify its vaccine sources, asking the United States for 4 million doses from its stock and signing a deal with Russia to produce Sputnik-V vaccines locally in Bangladesh.
Bangladesh has received 7.00 million of Oxford-AstraZeneca covid-19 vaccine doses produced by Serum Institute of India (SII) vaccines through its contract. Bangladesh also received 3.3 million doses of vaccine as a bilateral partnership gift. This is the largest amount sent from India to any country. As the Serum Institute of India (SII) has stopped exporting vaccines to Bangladesh, Dhaka thas decided to import corona vaccines from China and Russia to continue the massive vaccination programme. However, China’s relations with India, the USA and UK are very tense over different issues, Dhaka needs to be very careful and meticulous about the handing the situation. Bangladesh is also in process in procuring and producing Russian Sputnik vaccine, the Moscow-Washington relations are also very tense.
Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen joined a China-led virtual meeting recently to discuss ways to strengthen cooperation to deal with the Covid-19 situation. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has also joined his counterparts in four other South Asian countries. They discussed issues related to “Emergency Storage Facility” to help South Asian countries during an emergency situation. Bangladesh, in principle, has agreed on a Chinese proposal to set up an “Emergency Storage Facility” for Covid-19 related medical supplies to ensure quick supply of those among the South Asian countries during any emergency need.
Afghanistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Pakistan, which are not producing Covid-19 vaccines, have also received a similar proposal from China and agreed on it.
Foreign Minister Dr Momen said Bangladesh received the proposal on April 15.
Bangladesh has received seven million of Oxford-AstraZeneca covid-19 vaccine doses produced by Serum Institute of India (SII) vaccines through its contract. Bangladesh also received 3.3 million doses of vaccine as a bilateral partnership gift.
This is the largest amount sent from India to any country
Meanwhile, Bangladesh will receive 2.5 million doses of Moderna COVID-19 vaccine as gift under COVAX this week
“Please to announce Bangladesh will soon receive a gift of 2.5 million doses of Moderna COVID-19 vaccine from the American people via Gavi (global vaccine alliance),” said US ambassador to Bangladesh Earl R. Miller in his tweeter.
The COVAX is a worldwide initiative aimed at equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines directed by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, and the World Health Organization.
“As the largest contributor to COVAX, the US is committed to increasing the country’s (Bangladesh’s) vaccine supply to beat the pandemic here and worldwide,” Milled tweeted.
The US announcement comes as good news for Bangladesh as Dhaka has been desperately looking for vaccines to inoculate huge numbers of people.
However, Dhaka had urged Washington DC to send 2 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine immediately after knowing that the US had 60 to 80 million AstraZeneca shots in stock.
Besides, Bangladeshi diaspora community filed a petitioned to the White House, seeking vaccine doses.
Meanwhile, negotiation has been going on between Bangladesh and China and Russia to bring adequate vaccines here as soon as possible while Momen said the government is hopeful to make a formal announcement soon on coproduction of COVID-19 vaccine here.
The health ministry has been negotiating to purchase 1.5 crore doses of Chinese vaccine and to import 5 million doses of Sputnik COVID vaccine from Russia, according to the official sources.
foreign COVID-19 vaccine to be authorized in the country. Chinese officials are reviewing clinical-trial data for the vaccine and are expected to authorize it for domestic use within the next 10 weeks, the report said. BioNTech said in a statement that it does not speculate on timings of approvals.
The government also needs to implicate political, community, religious and business leaders, teachers and grassroots leaders to turn the vaccination programme success. Only educated and urban based population have interest in the vaccination programme. Only 40 lakh population have got the second doses of vaccine in the last six months . The capacity of injecting vaccines into the populations needs to be increased and up-gradated. Finally local production of the vaccine is ultimate solution as imported vaccines is highly expensive.
Imtiaz Ahmed is a Special Correspondent of The News Today
