UPDATE 1-India's Bharat Biotech seeks Bangladesh trial for COVID vaccine approved at home

* Bangladesh research body says will review application
* Could be first COVID vaccine to be tested in Bangladesh
* India also supplying AstraZeneca vaccine to Bangladesh

(Adds Philippine application, pricing details; paragraphs
15,16)
By Ruma Paul
DHAKA, Jan 21 (Reuters) - India's Bharat Biotech has applied
to conduct trials in Bangladesh for its coronavirus vaccine
recently approved for emergency use at home, a senior official
at Bangladesh's main medical research body told Reuters.
If allowed to go ahead, this would be the first trial of any
coronavirus vaccine in Bangladesh and could give the
densely-populated country of more than 160 million faster access
to the shot for mass use.
The vaccine, developed with the Indian Council of Medical
Research, was given the green light for restricted use in India
this month without any efficacy data from a late-stage trial.
Early tests, however, found it to be safe and generating an
immune response in humans. "We have received their proposal," said Mahmood-uz-Jahan, a
director at the state-run Bangladesh Medical Research Council,
adding that its ethics committee would review the application.
He declined to give details.
The Dhaka-based International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease
Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR,B), has applied to run the trial on
behalf of Bharat Biotech, said a source with direct knowledge of
the matter who declined to be named citing internal rules.
ICDDR,B declined to comment. Spokespeople for Bharat Biotech
had no immediate comment.
Sinovac Biotech 's SVA.O late-stage trial of a potential
vaccine in Bangladesh has become uncertain after Dhaka refused
to meet the Chinese company's demand for co-funding.
Bharat Biotech started a late-stage trial for COVAXIN at
home in November and a top Indian government vaccine official,
Vinod Kumar Paul, has told Reuters that a smaller study
involving 1,000-2,000 people could also be done in Bangladesh.
Bangladesh will from Thursday start receiving millions of
India-made doses of another vaccine licensed from Oxford
University and AstraZeneca AZN.L . It is being mass produced by
the Serum Institute of India, the world's largest vaccine maker.
Bangladesh, however, has no immediate plans to buy COVAXIN
whose efficacy data from the late India trial are expected by
March.
"Our vaccine procurement is in good shape. We are going to
start the vaccination in the first week of February," Bangladesh
Health Secretary Abdul Mannan told Reuters.
"No plan to buy from Bharat Biotech at present."
Brazil is the only country that has publicly announced plans
to buy COVAXIN doses from India.
The company on Thursday submitted an application for the
emergency use of the vaccine in the Philippines.