The parliamentary standing committee of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has strongly recommended producing Covid-19 vaccines in the only state-owned pharmaceutical company, Essential Drugs, within the next six months.
The recommendation was made at a meeting of the parliamentary committee at the Jatiyo Sangsad on Tuesday.
The recommendation came a day after a joint agreement was signed between the government and Incepta Vaccine Limited on the bottling and supply of Covid-19 vaccines in Bangladesh produced by the Chinese company Sinopharm.
Committee Chairman Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim told Bangla Tribune: "We have spoken strongly about this issue in today's [Tuesday] meeting.
“Vaccines must be produced through Essential Drugs within the next six months. We have also asked for an agreement between the two governments [G2G] on vaccine production.”
A member who took part in the parliamentary committee meeting said on condition of anonymity: "We have said in the meeting that the production of coronavirus vaccines should not be considered for the benefit of the private sector.
“Vaccination is very important for us and the government is trying its best. No section [of the govt] should give priority to profiting on the part of any private company.”
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According to the agreement between the government and Incepta, after Incepta bottles and labels the Sinopharm vaccine, the government will then buy it from the latter.
If all goes well, Health Minister Zahid Malek hopes that Incepta will be able to start producing the Covid vaccine in the country within three months.
The issue of vaccine production was officially discussed at a parliamentary committee meeting in June.
According to the documents of the meeting, in April, Sanjan K Das, a researcher at the University of Sheffield in the United Kingdom, sent a proposal to the secretary of health on creating an infrastructure for vaccine production at the government level.
The documents also state that vaccine production is possible by using Essential Drugs’ existing infrastructure along with some new equipment. The Health Ministry is considering reviewing the technical aspects of the matter.
