Bangladesh to set price of Sputnik V this week
The country’s drug regulator approved the Russian Sputnik V vaccine for emergency use against Covid-19 in April
Bangladesh will send a proposal to Russia fixing the price of Russian vaccine Sputnik V this week.
After an inter-ministerial meeting at the Secretariat on Sunday, Director General of the Directorate General of Health Services ABM Khurshid Alam told reporters that Russia had sent a reply to a letter from Bangladesh, with information about the vaccine.
The availability of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine from the Serum Institute of India is still uncertain as Khurshid said he did not have any information yet.
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In the meantime, a consignment of 1,00,620 doses of Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine will arrive in the country on Monday. A flight carrying the doses will land in Dhaka at 11:20pm, said the health ministry in a press release.
The decision on who will be eligible to get these shots and when is still pending.
Bangladesh is going to receive doses of Pfizer through international vaccine alliance Gavi under its worldwide vaccination initiative COVAX.
On 27 May, the Directorate General of Drug Administration (DGDA) approved Pfizer mRNA vaccine for emergency use in Bangladesh, removing all legal barriers to the import and use of this vaccine.
Pfizer has been approved as the fourth vaccine to be used in the country.
Earlier, the Oxford-AstraZeneca's Covishield, Russia's Sputnik-V, and China's Sinopharm vaccines got emergency use authorisation in Bangladesh.
According to the DGDA, Pfizer is a two-dose vaccine, the second dose of which will be given three weeks after the first shot.
The Pfizer vaccine was earlier required to be stored at minus 90 to minus 60 degrees Celsius. So, the cold chain maintenance of the vaccine was a concern for Bangladesh.
The DGDA said unopened, thawed vials of the vaccine can be stored in a refrigerator at 2 to 8 degrees Celsius for up to a month.
