Bangladesh seeks to buy 4crore more doses of vaccine from Seram Institute: Reuters

The Bangladesh government has approached India's Seram Institute to buy other 4crore doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine, Reuters reported.

"Negotiations are underway, let's see now," Reuters quoted Health Secretary Abdul Mannan as saying in a report on Thursday.

Earlier, in a press conference on February 27, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said she had ordered the import of another 3 crore doses of vaccine to combat the covid-19 epidemic.

Of the agreement reached in November last year to buy 3crore doses of coronavirus vaccine from the Serum Institute, Bangladesh has already received 70 lacs doses in two shipments.

Earlier, the Indian government had given 20 lacs doses of the vaccine as a gift, which is also an Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine produced by the Serum Institute, which they are marketing under the name Covishield.

After receiving the first consignment of vaccines, mass vaccination started on February 7 across the country. In the last month, more than a billion people have received the first dose of the vaccine, which is about 3 percent of the total population.

According to the November agreement, Bangladesh was supposed to get 50 lac doses of vaccine every month and three crore doses in six months. But in the midst of huge demand and the crisis of ticker supply around the world, Bangladesh received 2 million doses in February shipments.

The Serum Institute of India, the world's largest vaccine manufacturer now produces an average of 2.4 million doses of Axford Astrazeneca vaccine per day.

But first, they have to look at India's own needs. Apart from Bangladesh, they are also providing vaccines in Brazil, Morocco, and South Africa.

According to Reuters, the Seram Institute has not commented on Bangladesh's attempt to buy a new vaccine.

Health Secretary Abdul Mannan told Reuters that Bangladesh was also expected to receive 6.8 crore vaccines from Covax, of which 1crore doses were expected by June.

Led by the World Health Organization and Gavie, the platform, called CoVAX, has been developed to ensure that low- and middle-income countries around the world are also vaccinated.

Beximco Pharmaceuticals is responsible for supplying the 30 million doses of vaccine purchased by the Government of Bangladesh under the first agreement with the Serum Institute. They are the ‘Exclusive Distributors’ of the Covishield Ticker of the Serum Institute in Bangladesh.

However, the Bangladesh government has not yet made a decision on who will carry out the vaccination from the Seram Institute in the future; Reuters quoted the health secretary as saying.

In response to a Reuters question, Beximco Pharmaceuticals Chief Operating Officer (COO) Rabbur Reza said, "We have not placed any orders to buy a new vaccine. So far we have ordered a total of 30 million doses. The issue of additional orders will depend on the government. ”