Responding to an unconfirmed report about the Chinese company asking for co-financing for a vaccine trial, the Health Division Secretary of the government of Bangladesh Abdul Mannan confirmed to the official news agency BSS on Sunday that Sinovac Biotech Ltd has sent a letter to the government seeking co-financing for COVID 19 vaccine trial. He said that the company had not asked for co-financing by the Bangladesh government when it obtained the approval to carry out the trial.
The Chinese company had originally put up the proposal to Bangladesh through the Dhaka based International Centre for Diarrheal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr’b). Government granted final clearance for the clinical trial on August 27. An official of the icddr’b told BSS that it is now entirely up to the government to decide if they will agree to the co-financing proposal as there was no mention of it in the original proposal of the Chinese company.
Under the agreement before the co-financing was sought, Bangladesh would have got one lakh vaccines for free. It would also have got priority to purchase adequate quantum of vaccines from the Chinese company Sinovac Biotech.
By Rajesh Jha