Globe Biotech’s Covid-19 vaccine, Bangavax, has secured a US patent, marking a first in Bangladesh’s pharmaceutical history.
The company made the announcement at a press conference on Sunday, held at its Tejgaon office in Dhaka, reports Prothom Alo.
It was stated at the press conference that during the global Covid-19 pandemic, when people around the world were devastated, scientists Kakun Nag and Nazneen Sultana of the company initiated research activities under national necessity to develop Covid-19 detection kits, vaccines, and medicines.
The “Covid-19 mRNA” vaccine discovered through this research later received clinical trial approval from the Bangladesh Medical Research Council (BMRC) and the Directorate General of Drug Administration (DGDA).
In 2020, the full coding sequence of this vaccine’s target was first published in the US National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) database.
Subsequently, the research paper on the world’s first single-dose mRNA vaccine effective against Covid-19 was published in the renowned US medical journal Elsevier’s Vaccine.
Meanwhile, the fundamental technology behind producing the vaccine was published in Scientific Reports, a journal of the UK-based Nature.
The World Health Organization (WHO) also included the vaccine developed by Globe Biotech in its “Covid-19 Vaccine Tracker and Landscape” in 2020.
According to Globe Biotech, in monkey trials, the vaccine was proven to be completely safe and effective. This was also the first trial of any vaccine on monkeys in Bangladesh’s history.
Globe Biotech Limited, a subsidiary of Globe Pharmaceutical Group of Companies Ltd, began its journey in 2015 by establishing an advanced laboratory to produce biologics, novel drugs, and biosimilars aimed at treating complex diseases such as cancer, arthritis, anemia, hypertension, and autoimmune disorders.
Patent content
Globe Biotech said this is an mRNA vaccine developed with its own proprietary fundamental technology. Nanotechnology-based in-house technology was used in its development. It is the world’s only single-dose Covid-19 vaccine effective against multiple variants. Using this technology, other mRNA-based and advanced vaccines can also be developed.
In addition, the technology can be used to produce modern medicines for deadly diseases such as cancer and diabetes.
