Published in: The Business Standard
Date: 22 October, 2020

During a visit to Globe Biotech, the Nepalese Ambassador expressed interest in buying more doses of BANCOVID once the vaccine passes its human trials.

There is still a long way to go before Globe Biotech’s coronavirus vaccine BANCOVID enters the market as the human trials have not yet started. But, there are already orders for a large number of doses of this vaccine, said the Bangladeshi pharmaceutical company.

Nepalese private company Anmol Health Care is one of the companies that has recently entered into an agreement with Globe Biotech for 2 million doses of BANCOVID.

The Nepalese Ambassador to Bangladesh, Dr Banshidhar Mishra, visited Globe Biotech on Thursday. During the visit, the ambassador expressed interest in buying more doses of BANCOVID once the vaccine passes its human trials.

“The Nepal government is interested in importing vaccines from the Globe, but we have to wait for a successful trial”, he added.

Responding to a query, he said, “We are interested in Globe’s vaccine as the nature of the virus varies from one location to another. So, vaccines produced in Bangladesh will be apparently more effective for Nepal from a geographical perspective.”

He further said, “We have estimated that the vaccine from Bangladesh will be cheaper than one from any other country.”

Chairman of Globe Biotech, Harunur Rashid said, “The ICDDRB will soon conduct the first phase of the human trial of BANCOVID.”

“In addition to the orders from Anmol, we have also received orders for some 20 million doses of the vaccine”, he added.

However, he did not disclose the names of the companies or countries that have placed such large orders for the vaccine.

“The Director General of Health wants to meet us,” said Rashid, adding that “I hope the government will talk about purchasing our vaccine.”

Meanwhile, on 15 October, Globe’s vaccine was listed on the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) draft landscape of Covid-19 vaccines candidates.

However, WHO added a disclaimer that the listing “of any particular product or entity in any of these landscape documents does not constitute, and shall not be deemed or construed as, an approval or endorsement by WHO of such product or entity (or any of its businesses or activities).”

It further stated that, “While WHO takes reasonable steps to verify the accuracy of the information presented in these landscape documents, origination does not make any representations and warranties regarding the accuracy, completeness, fitness for a particular purpose, quality, safety, efficacy, merchantability and non-infringement of any information provided in these landscape documents and any of the products referenced therein.”

WHO also disclaims all liability or responsibility whatsoever for any death, disability, injury, suffering, loss, damage or other prejudice of any kind that may arise from or in connection with the procurement, distribution or use of any product included in any of these landscape documents.”

On 2 July, Globe Biotech announced that they had been developing a Covid-19 vaccine and had successfully completed preliminary animal trials.

On 5 October, they said they had received “very promising” results from the pre-clinical trials on rabbits and mice.

Source: https://tbsnews.net/coronavirus-chronicle/covid-19-bangladesh/nepal-signs-deal-buy-2mn-doses-globes-vaccine-148408