Govt orders 75m doses Chinese Sinopharm vaccine: Momen

Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen on Thursday said the government has ordered 75 million doses of Chinese Sinopharm COVID vaccine to purchase while already made the payment of 15 million doses out of it.

"We ordered 75 million doses Sinopharm (vaccine) ... and we have already sent money for 15 million doses out of these," he told media at State Guest House Padma in the capital of Dhaka.

Apart from purchasing vaccine, the foreign minister said that Dhaka would receive 34 million doses of Sinopharm vaccine next week and one million more doses of AstraZeneca vaccine later this month under COVAX framework.

Besides, he said, Bangladesh is scheduled to get six million more doses of Pfizer vaccine in the first week of September under the COVAX as well.

COVAX, a global alliance, is a worldwide initiative aimed at equitable access to Covid-19 vaccines directed by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance.

"We have made a good line up of vaccine .... (as) we would like to make at least half of our population vaccinated," he said, adding that currently the health ministry has 12.3 million doses of different kinds of COVID vaccine.

Saying that vaccine coproduction is very crucial to fulfil the government's target to vaccinate most of the countrymen, Momen announced that the tentative agreement over vaccine coproduction with China would be signed anytime. production of its Sinopharm COVID vaccine with a local Bangladeshi pharmaceutical here on July 16.

"We have forwarded it (the draft MoU) right way to the Health Ministry," Momen said.

Mentioning that the law ministry also vetted the draft agreement, Momen said, "Everything (MoU) is fine ... any minute they can sign (the agreement)".

Earlier, Dr Momen confirmed that Chinese Sinopharm would go for co-production with Bangladeshi pharmaceutical company Incepta.

The final agreement would be signed among three parties - Bangladesh government, Incepta pharmaceuticals and Chinese Sinopharm.

The foreign minister said it should not be delayed in preparing the final MoU as it would take two months to start coproduction here after signing the final agreement.

About co-reproduction of Russian vaccine here, the foreign minister said, currently the Moscow administrations is working slowly as Russia has been hit by the third wave of coronavirus.

Source: BSS