Health and Family Welfare Minister Zahid Maleque on Monday said over 200 Covid-19 vaccine candidates are in the global race of development while 25 candidates are in human trial, reports BSS.
“A total of 141 coronavirus candidates are in primary stage…some candidates are in the final stage of vaccine development,” he told a virtual meeting at his ministry, an official release said.
Director General of Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) Prof Dr Abul Bashar Mohammad Khurshid Alam, Director General of Directorate General of Drug Administration Maj Gen Md. Mahbubur Rahman, Chief Scientific Officer of International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR,B), scientists, physicians, researchers, among others, were present at the meeting with Secretary of Health Service Division Md Abdul Mannan in the chair.
Maleque said, “We are closely observing the efficacy of global vaccine development of Covid-19…we are communicating with those countries, which are in the final stage of coronavirus vaccine development.”
Highlighting different phases of coronavirus vaccine development update, Other speakers said leading companies and institutions are frantically working to develop Covid-19 inoculation to get remedy from the deadly virus.
They also discussed ways and doings to get adequate number of vaccines from respective countries, which are at the final stage to invent vaccination to prevent the killer disease.
On July 19, Bangladesh’s regulatory Medical Research Council (BMRC) extended “ethical approval” for final or phase-3 human trial of a prospective Covid-19 vaccine by China’s private Sinovac Biotech Ltd, which appeared to be a forerunner in a global race for developing inoculates against coronavirus.
The health ministry sources said many countries including China and the UK are in the final stage for vaccine development as they are performing phase-3 human trial of COVID-19 vaccine development.
If these countries are able to develop coronavirus vaccines, Bangladesh will get inoculations on priority basis, they said adding those countries with per capita income below 4000 US dollar will get vaccines for free. As per capita income of Bangladesh is below 2,000 US dollar, the country will get vaccine for free.
