Bangladesh is already self-sufficient in food and medicine production, and now wants to be self-sufficient in vaccine production as well, said Health Minister Zahid Maleque this evening during a visit to the vaccine plant of Incepta Pharmaceuticals Ltd at Jirabo area of Ashulia in Savar.

"Incepta vaccine plant already achieved world-class capability in vaccine production according to the Infrastructure and Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) standard. So I think other countries also can use this plant for their vaccine production during this Covid-19 pandemic and in doing so, Incepta's capability will play a major role to protect world public health," he said.

Zahid also said it is good news that this vaccine plant can produce 180 million doses of vaccines each year, as in this case, the world community can use this facility when huge demand will be created globally for Covid-19 vaccine use, reports our Savar correspondent.

Benzir Ahmed, MP of Dhaka-20, Md Abdul Mannan, secretary of Health Services Division, Major General Mahbubur Rahman, director-general of Drug Administration, Prof Dr Abul Bashar Mohammed Khurshid Alam, director-general of Directorate General of Health Services and Abdul Muktadir, chairman and managing director of Incepta Pharmaceuticals Ltd, were also present there, among others.

Incepta Vaccine Ltd officially started their vaccine production in 2011, and have a vaccine plant installed following the GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice) policy of the World Health Organization.

The plant has all kinds of equipment to produce vaccines. Apart from that, it also has facility where they operate several kinds of tests on animals.