Bangladeshi drugmaker Globe Biotech Limited has applied for approval to begin clinical trials of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate 'Bangavax'.
It submitted the ethical clearance application to Bangladesh Medical Research Council (BMRC) on Sunday. An assistant director of BMRC received the application.
On behalf of Globe, CRO Limited will run the clinical trial in a unit of a government hospital. The name of the hospital will be disclosed after gaining approval.
Globe received a licence to produce the potential vaccine on December 28 last year.
It is the only Bangladeshi firm in the race to develop an effective and safe coronavirus vaccine, seen as the only way out of the pandemic that has claimed at least 1.86 million lives and infected more than 86.46 million globally.
The vaccine was initially called Bancovid, but was later renamed Bangavax in December.
The experimental COVID-19 vaccine features in the World Health Organisation’s list of the draft landscape of candidate vaccines.
The drugmaker shared their effort to produce COVID-19 vaccine in a press briefing on Jul 3 last year and later on Oct 10, said the vaccine ‘has proved its efficacy and safety’ when applied on mice.
Initially Globe Biotech had signed an MoU with the icddr,b for running a clinical trial which was later cancelled due to the lack of interest on icddr,b’s part, said Globe Pharmaceuticals Chairman Harunur Rashid, reports bdnews24.com.
