Govt Should Talk to Serum for due Vaccine Doses: Papon

Bangladesh government should talk to India's Serum Institute over getting the rest of the vaccine doses, said Nazmul Hassan Papon, managing director of Beximco Pharmaceuticals. 

"The government must talk with Serum for the due doses as it got 70 lakh doses after paying for 1.50 crore doses," he said after receiving the second dose of Covid-19 vaccine at Kurmitola General Hospital today, reports media.

He further said, "It is not acceptable that Serum will not give the vaccines after taking advance payment."

The health ministry, on 5 November last year, signed a tripartite deal with the Serum Institute and Beximco for three crore doses of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine.

Serum sent 70 lakh doses in two consignments- one on 25 January and another on 23 February. Besides, the Indian government gifted 32 lakh doses to Bangladesh in two phases.

Earlier, India, on 24 March, announced a halt to all exports of the coronavirus vaccine citing they would meet domestic demand first as Covid-19 took a dangerous turn there.

However, Salman F Rahman, prime minister's private industry and investment adviser, then said the Indian government assured him that Bangladesh will remain out of the purview of the export ban on the vaccine and will supply as per demand whenever necessary.

Meanwhile, the inoculation master plan hit a snag for the vaccine crisis in Bangladesh.

The country now has less than 25 lakh doses of vaccine in stock. More than one and a half lakh people are now getting vaccinated every day on average. If this continues, the vaccine doses will run out in the next 18-20 days.

The country rolled out mass inoculation on 7 February with the vaccine manufactured by Serum Institute.