Bangladesh to set up vaccine institute to produce vaccines: PM
Prime minister Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday said that the government was going to set up an international vaccine institute to produce vaccines, including the Covid-19 vaccines, in Bangladesh.
Sheikh Hasina said this in Parliament while replying to a tabled question from Awami League lawmaker of Tangail-6 Ahasanul Islam Titu.
She said that the government would sign an agreement with South Korea to set up the vaccine institute and the issues relating to ratification, accession and approval of the agreement by the Cabinet were under process.
The prime minister said the government had taken an initiative to produce Covid-19 vaccines in the country alongside collecting those from foreign sources to check the Covid-19 pandemic in the country.
Hasina said government-to government negotiations were underway with the countries that had developed vaccines for transferring technology to this end.
She said that the capacity of three firms — Incepta Pharmaceuticals, Popular Pharmaceuticals and Healthcare Pharmaceuticals — had already been assessed over the production of Covid-19 vaccines.
Globe Biotech Ltd is working on a Covid vaccine. ‘The vaccine developed by Globe Biotech is now at the trial stage,’ she said.
Replying to another question from Jatiya Party lawmaker Fakhrul Imam, the prime minister said the government had so far approved the emergency use of five vaccines for their import.
The vaccines are — Oxford-AstraZeneca, Sinopharm (China), Sputnik-V (Russia), Pfizer-BioNTech (USA/Germany) and Crona Vac (China).
She said Bangladesh had so far collected a total of 1,08,0620 (1.08 crore) shots of Covid vaccines from different foreign sources. Of these, 1.02 crore shots, including the gifted ones, came from India, while 5 lakhs from Sinopharm and 1,0620 doses from Pfizer.
As of June 5 last, 58,22,177 people were given the first doses of vaccines, while 42,09,510 given the second doses, said the prime minister.
News Courtesy- http://www.newagebd.net/article/140910/bangladesh-to-set-up-vaccine-institute-to-produce-vaccines-pm
