One and a half million doses of vaccine are being bought from Sinopharm at a lower price than before: Finance Minister

Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal said that one and a half million doses of vaccine are being purchased from the Chinese company Sinopharm at a lower price than before. He said that the Cabinet Committee on Government Procurement has already approved it.

He told reporters this in a virtual briefing after receiving final approval for the import of one and a half crore doses of vaccines at revised prices in the meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Government Procurement on Wednesday.

Approval of supply of remaining 13 million doses and newly proposed 2 million doses of vaccine, i.e. 15 million doses in total, under Sinopharm Vaccine Supplement Agreement-1 out of the 15 million doses contracted from Chinese company Sinopharm International by the Central Pharmacy of the Department of Health is given A proposal to supply an additional 15 million doses of vaccine to meet the urgent need to combat Covid-19 has also been approved.

Once this information was published, there were various issues. The price is lower than before. Only this much can be said. If you say yes to this, then in that case, we have fallen behind once before, there is a possibility of falling behind again.

Sinopharm will supply 1 crore 5 million doses of vaccine to Bangladesh in the months of June, July and August at the rate of 5 million per month, he said on that day, we do not have any domestic company in this purchase. Directly with the Chinese government

This purchase agreement is being done by Bangladesh government.
He said, these purchases are selective purchases, I cannot tell you the details due to technical reasons. It is not possible to say. I believe you will understand and agree with us.

When asked at what price these vaccines are being bought or when they will reach the country, the finance minister expressed his inability to comment on the matter. He said, some purchases are selective. State interests do not have the opportunity to give details on these matters.

On the other hand, the additional secretary of the cabinet department. Shamsul Arefin said, there are some non-disclosure agreements, which cannot say everything. We will get 15 million vaccines, but at a lower price than before. 15 million was previously signed with Sinopharm. Of these, 2 million have been gifted to us by them. That is why they are giving us 15 million vaccines by adding 2 million more. As a result, we are getting 15 million vaccines at a lower price than before.