Beximco Pharma signs deal with India's Serum Institute to supply COVID-19 vaccine in Bangladesh

Beximco Pharmaceuticals has announced investment in the Serum Institute of India or SII to ensure Bangladesh gets priority access to COVID-19 vaccines being developed by the Indian drug manufacturer.

Beximco said in a statement on Thursday it would be the exclusive supplier in Bangladesh for the vaccine being developed by SII and that the Bangladeshi company would discuss with the government the number of doses it wants.

Beximco will also secure additional doses to be distributed to the private pay market in Bangladesh.

The Serum Institute is the world's largest manufacturer of vaccines by volume. It is holding trials for three potential coronavirus vaccines, including one licensed to AstraZeneca by Oxford University.

SII has partnered with AstraZeneca, the Gates Foundation and the Gavi vaccine alliance to produce more than a billion doses of a COVID-19 vaccine for global supply.

“Many countries have booked coronavirus vaccines in advance, but we don’t have any with Oxford,” said Salman F Rahman, vice-president of Beximco and the prime minister’s adviser on private sector industry and investment.

“Serum Institute’s advantage is that it is working on three vaccine candidaes, including that of Oxford,” he pointed out.

The statement did not give details about the size of the investment in SII nor how many vaccines Beximco might receive.

“Now we will have to negotiate with them [Serum] what will be quantity, what will be the price for the private sector and what will be the price for the government,” Salman said.

“There will be a section of people who will even want to buy the vaccine. And it will be meaningless for the government to provide the vaccine for free to those who can afford on their own. The government has limited resources,” he added.

"The investment amount will be treated as an advance and once the vaccine receives regulatory approvals, SII will include Bangladesh among the countries who will be the first to receive an agreed quantity of this vaccine from SII on a priority basis," Beximco said in the statement.

"This landmark agreement reflects the deep-rooted desire for collaboration between the two countries and as representatives of the two nations, between us we can go a long way towards helping to mitigate the health crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic," the heads of both companies said in the statement.

The deal announced by the Bangladeshi generic drugmaker comes after Dhaka said this month it was ready to hold trials of candidate vaccines being developed by India as both countries seek to curb the spread of the virus.

Bangladesh has also approved a late-stage trial of a potential coronavirus vaccine developed by China's Sinovac Biotech Ltd in the hope of being a priority recipient for the jab.

Bangladesh confirmed 47 more deaths and reported 2,211 new cases on Friday, taking the total number of cases in the country to 306,794 with 4,174 deaths.

India reported a record daily jump of 77,266 coronavirus infections on Friday, taking its total number of cases to 3.39 million with 61,529 deaths.

[With input from Reuters]