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Health Ministry Wants Refund from Serum Institute of India

Photo: Collected

Photo: Collected

The health and family welfare ministry has said it wants reimbursement of Tk 35 crore from Serum Institute of India for 1.5 crore Covid-19 vaccines that were not shipped to Bangladesh.

According to the health services division, the Serum Institute of India signed a contract with Bangladesh to supply 3 crore doses of vaccine within December 2021. The vials were estimated to be worth around Tk 1,200 crore. Following the agreement, Bangladesh paid Tk 635.77 crore through bank guarantee, which was enough to cover approximately 2 crore doses of coronavirus vaccine.

The contract, however, expired in December of last year. In two phases, the Serum Institute provided 1.5 crore dose vaccines to Bangladesh. SII still owes Bangladesh the remaining 1.5 crore doses.

According to the agreement, it was supposed to be shipped in instalments of 50 lakh doses at a time, but the company did not respond, citing its own needs and crisis during the spread of deadly delta variant of the coronavirus.

Despite the fact that Bangladesh badly needed the vaccine at the time, it did not arrive. However, SII now wants to resume shipment when Bangladesh has built its sufficient stock of the vaccine.

Officials said Bangladesh is looking for a way to get the money back, sources at the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and the Department of Health Services said.

In this regard, the Director General of the Department of Health, Prof Abul Bashar Mohammad Khurshid Alam told the Business Insider Bangladesh on Saturday that ‘now the Serum Institute authorities are showing interest in providing us with the rest of the vaccines but we don’t need that.’

He said: “Whether we will take it now or not needs to be discussed anew. Similarly, Bangladesh is interested in obtaining the refund.”

However, another senior health official told Business Insider Bangladesh that the consignment would not be entertained any more.

He said discussions have also started on settling what India owes Bangladesh.

“We have a huge stock of vaccines. About three crore doses have been administered to the masses in three days,” the official added.

The government of Bangladesh and Beximco Pharmaceuticals signed a tripartite agreement with Serum Institute of India in December 2020. Although everything looked fine in the beginning, due to a vaccine crisis in India, Serum Institute stopped shipping vaccines to Bangladesh.

Bangladesh has procured the vaccines from various countries and organisations, including China and the CONVEX platform, to normalise the home pandemic situation. Several consignments came as gifts from different sources. The country’s immunization programme has returned to normal since June.

As of last Thursday, more than 12.5 crore first doses, 7.56 crore second doses and 40 lakh third doses have been administered across Bangladesh, according to the Department of Health.

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