Is Bangladesh ready to produce coronavirus vaccine?

As the year 2021 fast approaching with Bangladesh waiting with bated breath to get coronavirus vaccines, Health Minister Zahid Maleque and government officials have raised new hopes of going into mass production of the shots in the country.

The question remains – how much Bangladesh is prepared to produce the doses after importing the required technology.

Some private pharmaceutical companies have the capacity and preparations for producing the vaccines, said the health minister.

“They have also contacted the health ministry for (vaccine production).  The government has discussed it with the (foreign) vaccine producers as well,” Zahid Maleque said.

A Bangladeshi firm, Globe Bitech, is trying to develop a coronavirus vaccine. The candidate, named Bangavax, is awaiting approval for trials.

In the race for the vaccine, as many as 56 candidates are at the clinical development stage, according to the World Health Organization or WHO.

The UK and US have begun inoculating their populations with the vaccine from US drugmaker Pfizer and Germany’s BioNTech. They are also set to begin using the vaccine from US firm Moderna. Russia has also launched vaccination with its Sputnik V candidate.   

The vaccine developed by the UK’s University of Oxford and drugmaker AstraZeneca is awaiting emergency approval for use.

Bangladesh has signed a deal with vaccine manufacturer Serum Institute of India for 30 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine. The shots are expected to arrive by February.

Mahbubur Rahman, director general of the Directorate General of Drug Administration, said at a programme last Friday that they hope the vaccines can be produced in Bangladesh by importing the technology from the foreign manufacturers.

“Some of our private pharmaceutical companies have the capacity to manufacture vaccines. The production will begin in the country once the technology is transferred,” he said.

Although the government officials said the country has the capacity to mass-produce vaccine doses, people involved in the health sector said the matter depends on the interests of the foreign manufacturers and WHO approval.

The health minister said the foreign companies eager to supply vaccines to Bangladesh have all been given the condition that Bangladesh be given the opportunity to produce the doses.

“They don’t have enough facilities to provide the entire world with vaccines at a time,” he said.

Meerjady Sabrina Flora, additional director general at the Directorate General of Health Services and a member of the health ministry taskforce on COVID-19 vaccine, said the developed shots have raised hopes of fighting the pandemic across the globe.

But it is still uncertain how long the vaccines can protect the people from the novel coronavirus - SARS-CoV-2, she pointed out, saying, “None of the vaccines have life-long efficacy.”  

The Oxford and Russian vaccines are estimated to give protection over the period of two years, she said and added that it means the world must wait for two years to see whether the estimation is true.

“If regular vaccination is required for the general public, we must make arrangements to manufacture the doses in the country. I’ve learnt that some private pharmaceutical firms have the capacity to produce the vaccines. The government will support them,” Sabrina said.

In line with the World Trade Organization’s Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, Bangladesh, as a least-developed nation, can locally produce some drugs patented by foreign firms.

Under the rules, some Bangladeshi companies are producing remdesivir, a drug developed by US firm Gilead Sciences that, trials showed, can reduce the hospital stay of coronavirus patients.

But the rules will not be applicable for the coronavirus vaccines, said Md Salah Uddin, a deputy director at the DGDA. The facilities are not available for new and experimental drugs, he said.

“But we can produce the vaccines that have so far been authorised and the others to come in two to three months if we can bring the components,” Salah Uddin said.

Bangladesh’s Incepta and Popular Pharmaceuticals have the capacity to mass-produce vaccines, he said. 

SM Rabbur Reza, chief operating officer of Beximco Pharmaceuticals, said some of the large pharma companies have kept their production lines ready for manufacturing the vaccines.

“But everything hinges on the authorisation of the vaccines. We can begin that process once these are approved. We will have to forge an alliance with the developers of the vaccines and take the technology from them,” he said. 

Beximco has also kept its facility ready for vaccine production so that it can begin manufacturing the doses whenever it gets the approval, according to him.

Bangladesh is bringing the vaccines from India’s Serum through Beximco.

Besides the AstraZeneca vaccine from Serum, the country will also receive 60 million doses through the WHO-led COVAX programme.