Three are members of the National Drug Regulatory Authority’s Vaccine Expert Committee have tendered their resignations from their positions today (17) Lankasara learns. These experts have left the committee protesting against an attempt to bring in 13 million doses of the Sinovac Chinese vaccine, which is currently the least effective vaccine against the Covid virus and is considered to be a scientifically unproven vaccine against the Delta variant sources of the Authority told Lankasara.
It is reported that the 08 member expert committee was influenced by three key figures in the trade including two heads of Institutions and one politician to approve Sinovac for emergency use.
According to Lankasara, the doctors who have resigned are Dr Rajiv Peiris, a specialist in immunology at the Colombo Medical Research Institute, Dr. Kanthi Nanayakkara, a specialist in virology at the same medical research institute, and Professor Channa Ranasinghe, a pharmacologist. All three are considered to be experts in the field.
Due to the lack of sufficient scientific data to confirm the effectiveness of the vaccine against the Delta Covid strain, even people who have already received both vaccines in countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand have died of Covid and these countries considering the third dose of Sinovac and being the least efficacy recorded among WHO-approved vaccines, four members of the expert committee initially stated that it should not be approved, while four others recommended that only two million doses be approved for emergency use. The committee has reached a final agreement that only two million doses of this vaccine should be imported in the background of the large number of vaccines that meet the above criteria being imported into the country, which is said to have been influenced by two heads of pharmaceutical companies and one politician.
However, the Board of Directors of the National Drug Regulatory Authority met yesterday (16) and approved the import of 13 million vaccines through the Pharmaceutical Corporation, which was approved only for the importation of two million specialists. Two medical experts representing the board of directors have objected to the approval.
It is reported that in the background of the successful vaccination without any shortage in the country, the expert committee doctors who have protested against the importation of 13 million doses of vaccines for the needs of two officials and a politician have sent a letter to the Chairman of the Drugs Authority, Dr Rasitha Wijewantha, announcing his resignation.
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