The country's leading manufacturer and exporter of medicine Beximco Pharmaceuticals has acquired a 54.6% stake in Sanofi Bangladesh. The acquisition is the biggest in Bangladesh's pharmaceutical industry's history. A brief ceremony took place Thursday at a city hotel to mark the occasion. Beximco Pharma Managing Director Nazmul Hassan MP, BCIC Chairman Shah Md Imdadul Haque, SM Alam, additional secretary at the Ministry of Industries, and senior officials from both companies attended the event. Nazmul Hassan said, "The completion of this deal is a major milestone for us. We have a clear strategy to continue our diversification and expansion, strengthening our position as a market-leading pharma company in Bangladesh. Read: 100 million Beximco PPE Park launched in Savar "We look forward to welcoming over 800 skilled and diligent Sanofi Bangladesh employees to our existing workforce. As an enlarged group, we are excited to continue our growth trajectory by delivering affordable treatments and breakthrough therapies in our growing domestic market," he added. Sanofi Bangladesh, part of global biopharmaceutical company Sanofi SA, started operating in the country in 1958 as part of British chemical company May & Baker. Following a series of mergers, it became known as Sanofi-Aventis in 2004, before being renamed Sanofi Bangladesh in 2013. Sanofi's manufacturing facility is located near Beximco in Tongi and the company is producing around 100 branded generic products – mainly for the local market. It has a strong presence in cardiology, diabetes, oncology, and dermatology. The company also supplies its global brands of vaccines, insulins and chemotherapy drugs to Bangladesh through direct imports.

Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline’s potential COVID-19 vaccine triggered strong immune responses in all adult age groups in preliminary trials, boosting optimism the shot may join the fight against the pandemic this year. After two doses of the vaccine candidate, participants showed neutralizing antibodies in line with those found in people who had recovered from the disease, according to results of the Phase 2 trial released Monday. The drugmakers said they plan to begin late-stage trials and production in the coming weeks and hope to win regulatory approval for the vaccine before the end of 2021. Read: Indonesia suspends AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine batch after death Regulators have already authorized a number of COVID-19 vaccines, though experts say more are needed as public health authorities around the world race to vaccinate their residents amid a pandemic that has already killed more than 3.3 million people and caused economic havoc. The Sanofi-GSK vaccine was an important part of the European Union’s vaccination strategy, and had notably been championed by French President Emmanuel Macron’s government. But researchers had to reformulate it after early testing produced an inadequate immune response in older people. The Sanofi-GSK candidate joins about a dozen vaccines now undergoing late-stage trials. The companies plan to produce up to 1 billion doses annually, and they have signed agreements to supply the U.S., Canada and developing countries, too. Public health experts say several vaccines will be needed to end the pandemic, because of the challenges in rapidly producing and distributing enough doses to vaccinate billions of people. “We know multiple vaccines will be needed, especially as variants continue to emerge and the need for effective and booster vaccines, which can be stored at normal temperatures increases,” said Thomas Triomphe, head of Sanofi’s vaccines unit. Read:India to begin Covaxin vaccine trials for children The results released Monday were from a Phase 2 trial involving 722 volunteers aged 18 to 95 who were recruited in the U.S. and Honduras. The late-stage trial will involve about 37,000 participants from countries around the world, the companies said.

Drugmakers GlaxoSmithKline and Sanofi said Friday that their potential COVID-19 vaccine won’t be ready until late next year because they need to improve the shot’s effectiveness in older people.

The British government has reached a deal with GlaxoSmithKline and Sanofi Pasteur for securing 60 million doses of a potential coronavirus vaccine.