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Beximco to be distributor of Oxford Covid-19 vaccine for Bangladesh


Published : 28 Aug 2020 09:30 PM | Updated : 06 Sep 2020 04:46 AM

The Beximco Pharmaceuticals Ltd is going to invest with the Serum Institute of India Pvt. Ltd to be the “exclusive distributor” of Oxford’s Covid-19 vaccine in Bangladesh.

The investment amount will be treated as an advance and once the vaccine receives regulatory approvals, Serum Institute will include Bangladesh among the countries who will be “the first to receive an agreed quantity of this vaccine from them on a priority basis”, the company said on Thursday.

Owner and CEO of Serum Institute Adar C Poonawalla and Principal of Beximco Pharma Shayan F Rahman said this “landmark” agreement was “a reflection of the deep rooted friendship and cooperation between the two brotherly neighboring countries and will go a long way in mitigating the health crisis both countries are facing due to the Covid-19 pandemic.”

Serum Institute, the largest manufacturer of vaccines in the world, has already partnered with OxfordAstraZeneca along with Gates Foundation and Gavi, to produce more than a billion doses of the vaccine for global supply.

The OxfordAstraZeneca vaccine (AZD1222) is an adenovirus vector-based vaccine, currently undergoing large scale phase III trials in Brazil, US, UK and India. The UK trials are well underway and have shown very encouraging results and are expected to receive approval by the end of 2020.

Beximco said they will also be offering to the government of Bangladesh “the opportunity to reserve certain quantities for priority supply at prices to be agreed between the government and the Serum Institute”.

Bangladesh confirmed over 300,000 cases of coronavirus and 4,000 deaths from the disease.

So far, no vaccine has been approved for commercial use in the world which is grappling to contain the pandemic.

According to the WHO, there are 19 vaccine trials in clinical evaluation and hundreds being developed and tested around the world to stop the pandemic.

Apart from Oxford’s vaccine, China National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm), China’s Sinovac, and American Moderna are also conducting the Phase 3 trials of Covid-19 vaccine. The government has allowed Sinovac to conduct the trial in Bangladesh with a hope to get the vaccine on priority basis.

Phase 1 and Phase 2 trials typically test the safety of a drug before it enters Phase 3 trials that test its efficacy.