Home ›› 16 Apr 2021 ›› World Biz
India’s vaccine manufacturer Serum Institute’s Chief Executive Officer Adar Poonawalla on Friday called on United Stated President Joe Biden to lift an US embargo on raw materials that disrupting vaccine production.
“Respected @POTUS, if we are to truly unite in beating this virus, on behalf of the vaccine industry outside the U.S., I humbly request you to lift the embargo of raw material exports out of the U.S. so that vaccine production can ramp up. Your administration has the details,” Poonawalla said in a tweet.
Poonawalla’s appeal came a little over week after former US Secretary of State John Kerry urged countries to fight together against COVID-19.
“We hear some people in the world talking about their country first…not needing another country. Pandemic and climate crisis underscore we have to do this together, we have to work together, we have to depend on each other,” Kerry said in a press conference in Dhaka.
Pune-based Serum, which produces Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, reportedly delayed supply of vaccines to several countries due to growing demand in India.
Bangladesh authorities in November signed an agreement with the Serum Institute and its local partner Beximco Pharmaceuticals to purchase a total of 30 million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine.
The country so far has received only five million doses of vaccine in first shipment.
Officials at the Directorate General of Health Service were unable to confirm when the second shipment of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine from Serum would be available.
Bangladesh officially started mass vaccinations on February 7 after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the drive in January. The inoculation of second dose began on April 8 and so far, 930,151 people were jabbed.
On Friday, 101 people died of coronavirus, making another record in deaths from the deadly virus in Bangladesh.
