RAJASTHAN HC SEEKS CENTRE’S RESPONSE ON VACCINE PRICING

JODHPUR: The Rajasthan high court on Thursday sought responses from the Centre, state and vaccine manufacturers on a petition challenging the differential pricing for Covid vaccine doses, HT has learnt. The court has set May 12 as the next date of hearing.

A division bench of Justice Sabina and Justice MK Vyas passed the order while hearing a PIL filed by the petitioner Mukesh Sharma.

The petition stated that the emergency approval to the vaccine manufactured by Serum Institute of India under the name of Covishield was granted on January 3 by the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization. It was reported that the vaccine would be sold to the Centre at ₹150 per dose. The vaccine indigenously developed by Bharat Biotech was also given approval for emergency use. It was stated that the vaccine developed by Bharat Biotech will also be sold at ₹150 per dose to the Centre.

Recently the Centre has announced Liberalized Pricing and Accelerated National COVID-19 Vaccine Strategy. it has been stated that from May 1, vaccine manufacturer will be bound to supply 50% of their monthly doses to the GoI and the remaining 50% can be supplied to states and other private channels.

“After the new strategy was introduced, the vaccine manufacturers announced their new rates. Serum said the vaccine will be given to the Centre at the prevailing rate, but the vaccine will be given to the states at ₹400 and private hospitals at ₹600. Bharat Biotech announced the rate to be ₹600 for the state and ₹1200 for private institutions, which is against the spirit of Article 14 and 21 of the Constitution,” Sharma said.

The petition said the prices quoted by manufacturers are not just higher but extremely discriminatory. “The rate quoted by Serum is the highest in the world. Under the new strategy, which is coming into effect on May 1, people above 18 years have been made eligible for vaccination, but not under the government of India vaccination programme.”