COVID-19 VACCINE: Bangladesh, China to strike deal, Monday
Oru Leonard
In a major development towards vaccine cooperation, Dhaka and Beijing will formally strike a deal on Monday (Aug 16) for co-producing Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccine in Bangladesh.
Diplomatic circle in Dhaka and the international community are considering the development as an important breakthrough in the Dhaka-Beijing ties and this co-production will greatly help Bangladesh speed up the current nationwide vaccination drive.
Making a formal announcement, the Chinese Embassy in Dhaka on Saturday said the signing ceremony of the memorandum on cooperation for Covid-19 inactivated vaccine (Sinopharm) will be held at 3:00pm on August 16 at Bangladesh College of Physicians and Surgeons (BCPS), Auditorium, Mohakhali, Dhaka.
Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen, Health and Family Welfare Minister Zahid Maleque, Chinese Ambassador to Bangladesh LI Jiming and high dignitaries, officials and other concerned will be present at the signing ceremony.
The Daily Sun (Bangladesh), ran a story detailing on signing of agreement between Dhaka and Beijing on Friday.
Bangladesh’s leading pharmaceutical company Incepta Pharmaceuticals Ltd will co-produce Chinese Sinopharm vaccine for coronavirus. The Sinopharm vaccine is produced by Beijing Bio-Institute of Biological Products Co Ltd, subsidiary of China National Biotec Group (CNBG).
The World Health Organisation (WHO) on May 21, 2021 approved the vaccine of Chinese state-owned company Sinopharm for emergency use. It is the first vaccine invented by a country outside the West and got approval by the WHO. Subsequently, Bangladesh also approved emergency use of Sinopharm vaccine and the vaccine is being largely inoculated across the country.
Official sources said Bangladesh will purchase huge bulk of Sinopharm vaccine liquid and the Incepta Pharmaceuticals will bottle it locally within next two months to meet the ever increasing demand for Covid-19 shots across the country.
As millions of people across Bangladesh line up for their coronavirus vaccination shots, the government is struggling to meet the surging demand.
According to the government proposal, some 26 crore doses of vaccines will be needed to vaccinate 80 percent of people for achieving herd community.
Apart from purchasing Chinese Sinopharm and Indian Covishield vaccines, Bangladesh is receiving Pfizer, Moderna and Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines under the international vaccine facility COVAX.
The co-production of Sinopharm vaccine will greatly support the additional need of vaccine and booster doses in the coming months.
