Dhaka Tribune 18 October 2020
The WHO finally acknowledged our efforts regarding vaccine development against SARS-CoV-2, says Globe Biotech
The country’s only coronavirus vaccine candidate Globe Biotech Limited has bagged yet another achievement as the World Health Organization (WHO) has named three vaccines on their “draft landscape of COVID-19 candidate vaccines.”
Issuing a press release on Saturday, the pharmaceutical research firm said it is the only company in the world to be listed with three vaccine candidates – DNA plasmid vaccine, Adenovirus Type 5 Vector and D614G variant LNP-encapsulated mRNA.
It also revealed the news through a Facebook post late on Friday night, saying: “The WHO finally acknowledged our efforts regarding vaccine development against SARS-CoV-2.
“They’ve updated our 3 candidate vaccines in preclinical evaluation (DNA plasmid vaccine, Adenovirus Type 5 Vector, and D614G variant LNP-encapsulated mRNA) on their “Draft landscape of COVID-19 candidate vaccines”, updated on 15 October 2020,” it concluded.
Confirming the development, Asif Mahmud, in-charge of research and development of Globe Biotech Limited, the D614G variant LNP-encapsulated mRNA vaccine— well-known as BANCOVID—is currently in the process of human trial.
This came just a day after the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b) signed a memorandum of understanding with the company to hold a human trial of BANCOVID.
Previously, Globe Biotech on July 2 announced that it started developing a Covid-19 vaccine “BANCOVID.”
It revealed on October 5 that Bangladesh Medical Research Council (BMRC) cleared the last requirement for the pharmaceutical firm to seek ethical approval for the vaccine’s human modelling experiment.
The biotech firm is optimistic that BANCOVID would hit the market by mid-February next year.
