Summary:

Bangladesh is shortly to sign the tripartite MOU with Sonipharm of China to co-produce the vaccine within the next two months. There was a previous disappointment in the supply of sputnik of Russia and Astrazeneca of India due to the surge in their national emergence.

Content:  

Bangladesh began the administration of COVID-19 vaccines on 27 January 2021 while mass vaccination started on 7 February 2021. The Oxford–AstraZeneca vaccine was the only COVID-19 vaccine authorized for emergency use from January to April 2021.

The country also ordered 30 million vaccines produced by Serum Institute of India, however, it delivered less than half of the doses, an estimated 7.0 million as they had their own national emergency. 

After the vaccine shortage due to this, Bangladesh approved the Russian Sputnik V and Chinese BBIBP-CorV vaccines for emergency use in late April 2021. Bangladesh has also authorized the emergency of Pfizer–BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine and to be distributed as part of COVAX, which is not hoped to reach soon.

So, finally, a tripartite memorandum of understanding (MOU) between Sinopharm of China,  Incepta pharmaceuticals of Bangladesh and the Ministry of Health will be linked soon for the co-production of the vaccines. Under the MOU, Bangladesh will receive the raw materials of vaccines from Sinopharm and the vaccines will be produced in the national plant.

So, Bangladesh foreign minister A K Abdul Momen is hopeful about the assurance of the Chinese Foreign Minister that there would be an uninterrupted supply of the vaccines from China.

Bangladesh has linked a deal to purchase about 15 million Sinopharm Vaccines, among which already 8.1 million, including 1.1million gift has been arrived already according to the statement of the Foreign Minister.

Article and Picture Source: The Financial Express, BDNews24