Centre yet to place fresh vaccine order
Amid a slow start, states ink pacts with vaccine companies
Despite several vaccination centres around the country running dry, and despite vaccination being opened to every adult Indian, the Centre has not yet placed fresh orders with the two Indian vaccine manufacturers — Serum Institute of India (SII) and Bharat Biotech, according to multiple sources.
The last order placed with the two vaccine makers — 100 million doses with SII and 20 million doses with Bharat Biotech — was in March. Industry sources revealed that the final tranche of deliveries of this order will be completed within the next few days.
“We will complete deliveries of the batches verified by the Central Drugs Laboratory, Kasauli, to any location across India that the Centre directs us to within the next few days. This order will be completed by mid-may,” said a source.
He added that no fresh orders have been placed by the Centre as yet.
State governments, though, are keen to place orders. More than 20 states have approached SII, and of them, four have already signed agreements with the company. Gujarat and Rajasthan have signed deals at ~400 per dose of the Covishield vaccine. After the prices were revised downwards, these contracts are now being revised at ~300 per dose.
Maharashtra has placed orders for 10 million doses with SII, and this will be received in three tranches.
States like Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha and Uttar Pradesh have placed orders for Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin. Both SII and Bharat Biotech refused to comment on the matter.
SII makes 60-70 million doses of Covishield per month, and by July, it will ram up its capacity to make 100 million doses per month. Bharat Biotech currently makes 10 million doses of Covaxin per month and is targeting to produce 100 million doses per month by September.
According to the Centre, 50 per cent of this would be procured by itself (and distributed free to states), while the remaining 50 per cent would be procured by the states and private hospitals. This means that the Centre will procure roughly 35 million doses from SII now and around 5 million doses from Bharat Biotech per month. However, there has not been any official communication or purchase order in this regard with either of the firms as yet.