A plan for the coproduction of COVID-19 vaccines in Bangladesh, in collaboration with the manufacturing companies of China and Russia, has faced uncertainty as the companies do not want to share the technology.
Commenting on the issue, Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen said, "The manufacturing companies are interested in coproduction with our local Pharmaceutical. But they do not want to transfer the technology."
“They want to do the ‘fill and finishing’ here (in Bangladesh). On the other hand, our companies are more interested in technology transfer. They want to get the technology and manufacture vaccines here,” the minister said.
"This issue needs to be resolved to start coproduction," he added.
Talking to reporters, Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen mentioned that Incepta Pharmaceuticals has started talks with Russia and China regarding coproduction.
He opined that Bangladesh could help other countries through vaccine exports if it can coproduce vaccine doses here.
However, if they go for the ‘fill and finish’ method, that will also benefit in having adequate supply.
Mr Masud said the government is facilitating the negotiation not intervening it.
We encourage both parties to come to a solution regarding the coproduction, he added.
Both the minister and secretary mentioned that the country will have sufficient stock of vaccine doses by August as Japan already declared to provide 2.9 million AstraZeneca and China will hand over an additional one million Sinopharm as a gift to Bangladesh.
The USA will also offer another 2.0 million doses of Moderna vaccine under the COVAX facility, the foreign ministry high-ups said.
The foreign secretary said that they already initiated a process to ensure vaccine doses for Bangladeshi students studying abroad on a fast-tracked basis.
The foreign ministry has started collecting applications from these students and forwarded these to the health ministry to include the names in the vaccination app (Surokkha) by three days.
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