Russia has proposed manufacturing its Covid-19 vaccine in Bangladesh: Momen

[The Ronin]

Russia has proposed to manufacture its 'Sputnik V' Covid-19 vaccine in Bangladesh in collaboration with the local pharmaceuticals under a co-production arrangement while Bangladesh is searching other sources apart from India to get vaccines.

"We agreed with them (Russia) on coproduction (of vaccine) … though it's not finalised yet," Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen told BSS in a recent interview.

Dr Momen said Moscow gave the proposal to manufacture its vaccine here as currently Russia does not have that much production capacity to export its vaccine to Bangladesh.

As per the proposal, Russia will provide the technology and Bangladeshi pharmaceutical companies will produce the Sputnik V vaccine here, he said.

"If things go well, it will be cheap and hopefully it will be better," he added.

Recently, India has also approved the use of Sputnik V vaccine, as the country faces vaccine shortages amid an intensifying second wave of the deadly Covid-19 virus.

Fearing that India could run out of vaccine for its own citizens while its opposition leaders are demanding an immediate moratorium on the export of vaccines, Dhaka started vigorously looking for other sources, including China, for getting vaccines.

The minister said Bangladesh did not show much interest about Chinese vaccine earlier as their vaccine is not approved by the World Health Organization (WHO).

"But, now we are keeping all options open to get vaccine," Momen said.

However, he said, China has informed Bangladesh that they would not be able to export any vaccine before December as they have already given commitment to other countries to supply their vaccine.

Besides, he said, the World Bank recently informed Bangladesh of providing 80 lakh doses of vaccine under COVAX by next month. "We are hopeful to get those vaccines under COVAX," he said.

Momen said, the government is also considering to engage the private sector in importing and marketing commercially expensive vaccine like the Pfizer-BioNTech one in the Bangladesh market to meet the demand.

The foreign minister said Bangladesh was one of the few countries to get the vaccine first due to farsighted leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina as she took initiatives regarding this from day one of the outbreak.

The government aims to vaccinate 80 percent of the total population free of cost to check the spread of the deadly virus.

In Bangladesh, so far, nearly 5.5 million people have received the first dose of the vaccine while around seven million more registered for the vaccination.

Russia has proposed manufacturing its Covid-19 vaccine in Bangladesh: Momen

Russia has proposed to manufacture its ‘Sputnik V’ Covid-19 vaccine in Bangladesh in collaboration with the local pharmaceuticals under a co-production arrangement while Bangladesh is searching other sources apart from India to get vaccines.

www.thedailystar.net

 

[DalalErMaNodi]

Hope this goes through.

Certain somebody won't be happy.

 

[leonblack08]

Once again, Reactive measure. Not proactive measure.

Why couldn't they think of this 6-7 months ago? Why were they happy with sourcing vaccine from a single source. I don't blame India, they have their own need to fill as their situation gets worse by the day. I blame the incompetent fools who were happy to declare victory prematurely.

 

[Quibbler]

No vaccine except J&J, Pfizer and AstraZeneca are worthy. That is the hard truth as of today.

 

[magra]

Hope this goes through.

Certain somebody won't be happy.

Not true. If you are able to produce more than your needs, the certain somebody would be happy to import too as the needs of that somebody is more than its capacity right now.

 

[Bilal9]

• Published: 08:17 PM April 20, 2021

Russian-made coronavirus vaccine Sputnik V. Collected


"Russia will provide technical assistance and Bangladeshi pharmaceutical companies will produce Sputnik vaccine here," he said.

Russia has proposed to produce their Covid-19 vaccine "Sputnik" in collaboration with local pharmaceuticals in Bangladesh under a co-production system. The proposal was made in view of the demand for covid vaccine from countries other than Bangladesh and India.

Foreign Minister Abdul Momen shared this information in a recent interview.

"We have agreed with Russia on their offer to co-produce the vaccine," he said. Although the matter has not been finalized yet. There is currently a huge demand for this vaccine worldwide. ”

Dr. Momen said that in view of the huge global demand, Moscow has proposed to produce the vaccine in Bangladesh as there is not enough production capacity to export the vaccine to Bangladesh in the current situation.

He further said that according to the proposal, Russia will provide technical assistance and Bangladeshi pharmaceutical companies will produce Sputnik vaccine here.

"If everything goes well - it will be relatively affordable and hopefully it will be relatively good," Momen said.

India has recently approved the use of the Russian Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine. Authorities in India have approved the vaccine due to a second wave of Covid-19 (Corona virus) outbreak.

Opposition leaders in India have demanded an immediate halt to vaccine exports, fearing that the vaccine could be used for its citizens. Under the circumstances, Dhaka is trying to get the vaccine in great demand from other countries including China.

The minister said Bangladesh had not shown much interest in the Chinese vaccine before due to lack of World Health Organization (WHO) approval.

Momen added, "But now the situation is different. We are trying our best to get the vaccine. ”

He said, however, that China had informed Bangladesh that it would not be able to export any more vaccines before December as it had already promised to supply its vaccines to other countries.

Momen added that the World Bank has recently announced that it will provide 6 million doses of vaccine to Bangladesh next month under the CoVAX. We are hopeful that we will get those vaccines under Covax.

On January 21, the first shipment of the Covid-19 vaccine arrived in Bangladesh. Besides, India sends 20 million doses of vaccine to Bangladesh as part of its "Neighborhood Plus Policy".

Later, during the visit of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Bangladesh, Bangladesh received another 1.2 million doses of vaccine as a gift from India.

In addition to this gift, Bangladesh signed a tripartite memorandum of understanding on 5 November and purchased 30 million India-produced vaccines on 13 December under an agreement between the Government of Bangladesh, Beximco Pharmaceuticals Limited BPL and Serum Institute of India SII.

Under the agreement, Bangladesh is to receive 5 million doses of vaccine every month. But after the first consignment of 5 million doses, Dhaka did not receive the second consignment. The consignment was due in March.

"India has informed us that they will send the vaccine," Momen said. They never said they would not send vaccines. "
Mentioning that Dhaka has confidence in India, he said, "Dhaka is hopeful that we will get all the vaccines of 30 million doses within the time limit of the agreement."

The minister, however, said that Dhaka fears that the vaccines produced in India are not enough to meet their growing demand for vaccines in their own country and to provide vaccinations to foreign countries.

He added that they have taken more orders than they could afford.

Momen said the government is also considering importing and marketing the vaccine commercially through the private sector to meet the country's growing demand for the vaccine.

The Foreign Minister said that under the dynamic and far-sighted leadership of the Prime Minister, Bangladesh has become one of the few countries in the world to receive the first vaccine. From the first day of the spread of the virus, he took all the necessary steps to get the vaccine.

"The government has also set a target of vaccinating 80 per cent of the country's population against the deadly coronavirus for free," he said.

In Bangladesh, about 5.5 million people have so far received the first dose of corona vaccine. Another seven million people have registered to be vaccinated. ”

 

[Michael Corleone]

Lol so the investment in India didn’t pay off lol.
India struggling to meet its own demands

 

[Mohamed Bin Tughlaq]

This Momen guy is full of shxt

 

[mb444]

BD government have spectacularly failed to support BD own homegrown C-19 vaccine BanCovid by Globe Biotech by not ensuring quick turnaround to facilitate final phase of human testing.

Probably paid off by beximco to not allow any players in.

So hopelessly lame.

 

[Tom-tom]

Hope this goes through.

Certain somebody won't be happy.

A friend in Bangladesh was telling the Indian made vaccines don't work. Is due to Indians giving fakes or duds to Bangladesh or is the vaccine completely ineffective in Bangladesh?

 

[DalalErMaNodi]

A friend in Bangladesh was telling the Indian made vaccines don't work. Is due to Indians giving fakes or duds to Bangladesh or is the vaccine completely ineffective in Bangladesh?

Nah, they work just fine,.. they're not Indian vaccines, they're merely manufactured in India.

 

[Destranator]

We can't afford to inject trash and create a new pandemic of our own. Just get the damn Astrazenica licence and mass produce locally. Get lincense for Pfizer later when it becomes available.
No need for Putnik V, Sinovax, etc..

 

[UKBengali]

We can't afford to inject trash and create a new pandemic of our own. Just get the damn Astrazenica licence and mass produce locally. Get lincense for Pfizer later when it becomes available.
No need for Putnik V, Sinovax, etc..

Who told you Sputnik is not a good vaccine?

The EU leaders even went begging to Putin for it after they could not get enough supplies of AstraZeneca.

Pfizer is not suitable for BD due to needing to store it at -78C before thawing to inject people. After thawing it can only be stored in fridge for 5 days. Also it is really expensive and Pfizer will not be giving BD any discounts either.

 

[Destranator]

Who told you Sputnik is not a good vaccine?

The EU leaders even went begging to Putin for it after they could not get enough supplies of AstraZeneca.

Pfizer is not suitable for BD due to needing to store it at -78C before thawing to inject people. After thawing it can only be stored in fridge for 5 days. Also it is really expensive and Pfizer will not be giving BD any discounts either.

Only a handful of European countries have bought it while only Hungary has deployed it so far
EMA is yet to approve.
There are serious questions about Russia's tall claims on the vaccine's efficacy:

Russia’s Claims of Sputnik V's 97.6% Effectiveness Under the Spotlight - The Moscow Times

Russia is once again facing questions over its coronavirus-related data after it claimed its Sputnik V vaccine has 97.6% effectiveness based on an analysis of infections among vaccine recipients in Russia.

www.themoscowtimes.com

We should avoid becoming guinea pigs for zero accountability, authoritarian nations.
We have enough capacity to manufacture the Astrazenica vaccine locally.
Agree that Pfizer cannot been deployed widely.

We should also pursue J&J. The recently reported blood clot stats are too miniscule (1 in 5-6 million) to be bothered about.

 

[UKBengali]

Only a handful of European countries have bought it while only Hungary has deployed it so far
EMA is yet to approve.
There are serious questions about Russia's tall claims on the vaccine's efficacy:

Russia’s Claims of Sputnik V's 97.6% Effectiveness Under the Spotlight - The Moscow Times

Russia is once again facing questions over its coronavirus-related data after it claimed its Sputnik V vaccine has 97.6% effectiveness based on an analysis of infections among vaccine recipients in Russia.

www.themoscowtimes.com

We should avoid becoming guinea pigs for zero accountability, authoritarian nations.
We have enough capacity to manufacture the Astrazenica vaccine locally.
Agree that Pfizer cannot been deployed widely.

We should also pursue J&J. The recently reported blood clot stats are too miniscule (1 in 5-6 million) to be bothered about.

EMA has not approved as Russia has not submitted for approval.
Same like AstraZeneca in US.

Russia can supply millions of doses immediately and agreed to set up production line in BD and so comes in at a good time as India has blocked exports of AstraZeneca vaccine.
There is no other possibility of getting AstraZeneca doses anytime in the next 2-3 months.
As for J&J it’s efficacy is 60-70% and a little better than Chinese vaccine but still lower than AstraZeneca and the other Western vaccines. No idea when this vaccine can be supplied to BD at the earliest.

Russia has traditionally been very good at vaccines and due to the amount of countries, including major EU ones like France and Germany, who have either deployed it or want it then it is fair to say it works as advertised.
Even India has approved it and they are producing 10s of millions of doses of AstraZeneca for themselves every month now.