Parliamentary committee suggests steps to sue India's Serum Institute

The parliamentary standing committee on the foreign ministry has made a suggestion to assess if a case can be filed against Serum Institute of India for failing to supply the Covid vaccine on time.

The suggestion was made at a meeting of the committee at national parliament on Sunday.

Bangladesh made an agreement with Serum to procure Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines from it, but the organisation failed to supply the vaccines since last March. Serum’s failure has created uncertainty over inoculation of more than 1.4 million people in Bangladesh.

The meeting discussed about the vaccination situation of the country.

“We also discussed about Serum Institute’s Covid vaccine. They failed to supply vaccine on time not only in Bangladesh but also in other countries. That’s why the European Union has given an opinion to file a case against them. We also have to consider about filing case since they failed to supply us the vaccine after receiving the money in advance,” chairman of the parliamentary committee Faruk Khan told Prothom Alo after the meeting.

He said the committee had asked the authorities concerned four months ago to try to bring the vaccine from multiple sources. It also raised the question as to why ministry had failed to do so.

The ministry replied that it could not bring vaccine from more than one source for various reasons but they are now trying, Faruk Khan added.

Bangladesh would receive vaccines from multiple sources including India within a short while, the ministry said.

A press release of the parliamentary standing committee said that they suggested the authorities to continue effort to bring vaccines from USA, India and China.

The committee also suggested that the border with India will remain shut due to Covid situation in the neighbouring country.

Chaired by Faruk Khan, the meeting was attended, among others, by foreign minister AK Abdul Momen, Nurul Islam Nahid, Abdul Majid Khan, Habibe Millat and Kazi Nabil Ahmed.