Beximco Pharmaceuticals Limited (BPL) will invest in the Serum Institute of India (SII) Private Limited for the development of the Covid-19 vaccine.
BPL will be the exclusive distributor of SII for this vaccine in Bangladesh, said a press release issued on Friday.
The investment amount will be treated as an advance and once the vaccine receives regulatory approvals, SII will include Bangladesh among the countries who will be the first to receive an agreed quantity of this vaccine from SII on a priority basis, reports BSS.
BPL’s investment amount and SII’s priority supply commitment will be determined considering SII’s production capacity and earlier commitments to other countries.
BPL will also facilitate to meet the demand of the government of Bangladesh (GOB) by offering the opportunity to reserve desired quantities for priority supply at prices to be agreed between the GOB and SII.
The company will also secure additional quantities of the vaccine to be distributed in the private pay market in Bangladesh.
The Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine (AZD1222) is an adenovirus vector-based vaccine, currently undergoing large scale phase III trials in Brazil, US, UK and India. The UK trials are well underway and have shown very encouraging results and are expected to receive approval by the end of 2020.
SII has already partnered with Oxford/AstraZeneca along with Gates Foundation and Gavi, to produce more than a billion doses of the vaccine for global supply.
Both Adar C Poonawalla, Owner and CEO of SII and Shayan F Rahman, Principal, BPL jointly commented, “We are excited to bring together two of the leading pharma companies in India and Bangladesh with the scale and capabilities to bring a hugely promising treatment to the people who need it the most.”
“This landmark agreement reflects the deep-rooted desire for collaboration between the two countries and as representatives of the two nations, between us we can go a long way towards helping to mitigate the health crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic,” they said.