The Bangladesh government has bought the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine from Serum Institute of India at a price 47 per cent higher than that the Indian government has paid for the vaccine, according to local and international sources.
Bangladesh has paid $4 but India $2.72 for each dose of the vaccine, according to Indian news reports and officials in Bangladesh.
Health rights campaigners have questioned the vaccine procurement deal the Bangladesh government has signed, for which the country had to spend a much higher amount of money than the normal value.
Citing Serum CEO Adar Poonawalla a number of newspapers in India and international news agencies reported that Serum would sell Indian government each vaccine dose at 200 rupee, equivalent to $2.72.
Chief operating officer Rabbur Reza of Beximco Pharma, with which the Bangladesh government has signed the contract to procure Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine doses, said, ‘The agreed price for supplying each dose of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine to the government of Bangladesh is $4.’
As per the tripartite deal signed in November between Serum, the Bangladesh government and Beximco Pharma, Bangladesh would buy three crore doses from Serum through the local mediator Beximco Pharma, meaning that Bangladesh has to pay $38.4 million more than India does for the quantity.
In addition, Beximco will take $1 extra for each dose to carry the vaccine lot from Serum’s warehouse in India to the government facilities in Bangladesh.
Health rights campaigner Zafrullah Chowdhury on Monday questioned the contract under which the vaccine doses are coming from India, suspecting that there may have been corruption in the vaccine procurement process costing the taxpayers.
He told New Age that the government had given Beximco Pharma an ‘undue opportunity’ to make money out of the deal.
‘Why should have the government used Beximco instead of procuring the vaccine directly ?…It’s simply corruption,’ said Zafrullah, the founder of Gonoshasthaya Kendra.
Bangladesh Health Rights Movement chairman Rashid-e-Mahbub questioned the government’s integrity in purchasing the vaccine using Beximco Pharma.
‘What’s the reason the government hasn’t directly bought the vaccine? Has Beximco got undue brokerage money?’ he asked.
The Transparency International Bangladesh on Tuesday demanded highest possible transparency in the COVID-19 vaccination process to check corruption, confusion and controversy.
The TIB made the demand in a statement, saying that there is no alternative to transparency in order to check repetition of corruption incidents that marred procurements relating to health services for COVID-19.
Janasastha Sangram Parishad, a public health rights campaign group, in a rally in the capital on Tuesday also criticised the involvement of Beximco Pharma in the vaccine procurement process.
The group’s president Faizul Hakim Lala alleged that Beximco had been given an illegal business opportunity to make money out of the vaccine purchase.
