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India’s vaccine export ban won’t affect BD, say ministers

Published : Tuesday, 5 January, 2021 at 12:00 AM  Count : 557

Though India has slapped a ban on export of vaccine of Serum Institute for several months it will not affect Bangladesh, said the Health Minister.
Health Minister Zahid Maleque said, "The agreement which we inked will not be disrupted. We are confident that there won't be any problem. We hope it will be resolved."
"As Bangladesh has already contacted India, they will honour the contact," the minister hoped.
Health Minister Zahid Maleque told reporters at an emergency meeting at the secretariat on Monday in the wake of a ban on the export of corona vaccine of India. Health secretary was present at the programme.
Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen said, "Indian Ministry of External Affairs has informed us that Serum Institute's CEO Adar Poonawalla     comment regarding the ban on exporting vaccine was his personal opinion."
"The bilateral agreement of vaccine export will be implemented on time as it was done following a high-level discussion between Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her Indian counterpart Norendra Modi," the Foreign Minister added.
Adar Poonawalla, the head of the Serum Institute told media, "India will not allow the export of the Oxford-AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine for several months."
The Serum Institute of India (SII), the world's largest vaccine manufacturer, has been contracted to make 1 billion doses of the vaccine for developing nations.
With rich nations reserving most of the vaccines that will be made this year, Serum Institute is likely to make most of the inoculations for developing countries.
The ban on exports, however, means that poorer nations will probably have to wait a few months before receiving their first shots.
However, Health Secretary Abdul Mannan said the vaccine would be available by next month (February) as the agreement is government-to-government agreement.
On November 5, Beximco Pharmaceuticals signed an agreement with the Serum Institute of India to receive 30 million doses of the Oxford-astrazeneca vaccine.
Under this initiative, Serum was supposed to give 50 lakh vaccines to Bangladesh every month for six months in the first phase.
The Health Secretary said, "The High Commission of India has informed us about the financial transactions of the agreement we have made. The ban will apply only to commercial activities, not to us because our agreement is government-to-government agreement."
"So far the Serum Institute of India has not received any approval from the government of their country. They got it yesterday. They will now apply to the World Health Organization (WHO). If they can get the WHO's approval within three weeks, we were told to get it by February. Then there are still three or four weeks left until February. So there is no room for delay," he added.
Besides, the discussion is also underway with China and Russia to get their vaccine.
"We have discussed with various countries whether there is an alternative if we won't get vaccine from India. For example, Chinese vaccines, Russian vaccines are at different stages in developing. Their trial is not over. We will reach an agreement when their trial is over," the Minister added.






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