UP in talks with Dr Reddy’s, Zydus for vaccine doses
Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, which is marketing the Sputnik V vaccine in India, and Zydus Cadila, which is developing a Covid-19 vaccine, were the only two vaccine manufacturers to attend a pre-bid meeting of the Uttar Pradesh government on Wednesday evening, convened by the state to discuss procurement of 40 million Covid-19 jabs.
“The two companies that came for the pre-bid were Sputnik and Cadila Zydus. We have reached out to others also, including Johnson & Johnson and Moderna,” said Navneet Sehgal, additional chief secretary (information) in the UP government.
The two key domestic vaccine manufacturers, Hyderabadbased Bharat Biotech and Punebased Serum Institute of India (SII) did not participate the meeting because of capacity constraints, two persons with direct knowledge of the matter said requesting anonymity. India has so far administered 177 doses of the vaccines developed by the two companies.
SII and Bharat Biotech did not respond to email queries.
India’s most populous state will spend up to ₹10,000 crore to buy Covid-19 shots, Sehgal separately told news agency Reuters,
“Money is not an issue, we have a huge budget,” he said, adding that funds would have to be diverted from other areas to buy the vaccines.
“Both SII and Bharat Biotech are producing vaccines at their maximum capacity, and they don’t have any significant additional capacity to meet the UP government’s requirement of 40 million doses in the near future. Hence, they will avoid giving
wrong signals to other Indian states by participating in their global tenders,” one of the people cited above said.
A second person said about a dozen Indian states are in the process of procuring vaccines through global tenders, which is impractical in the current global scenario when demand outstripped supply. “It is unlikely that any major global pharma companies would participate in tenders floated by state governments, especially when regulatory approvals to their vaccines are uncertain,” this person, directly involved in vaccine business, said.
Hindustan Times reported on Wednesday that Tamil Nadu was the 11th state to opt for global tenders to get vaccines, even as officials in states said it wasn’t clear by when they would receive doses. While states have freedom to float global tenders for acquiring Covid-19 vaccines from any drug manufacturer, they cannot inoculate their citizens with vaccines that have not been approved by the Union government. Several states have asked the Union government to set up a central procurement of vaccine to have the weight of sovereign behind them in negotiating better terms with global vaccine produces. To be sure, the centre has said that vaccines approved elsewhere will be approved in India under certain conditions.
After the Centre on April 19 decided to launch the “liberalised and accelerated” third phase of the national immunisation programme to cover the 18-44 age group from May 1, several states such as Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, Delhi, Karnataka, Telangana, Bihar and Maharashtra initiated the procurement process of vaccines. The April 19 decision allowed vaccine manufacturers in India to supply 50% of monthly output to states (allocated on the basis of the size of the eligible population in the state) and private hospitals after keeping 50% of doses for the Centre. Zydus Cadila is yet to apply for emergency use authorisation of its vaccine, which will require at least interim data from Phase 3 clinical trials.
Sputnik V has already been approved by the drug regulator for emergency use. Both Zydus Cadila and Dr. Reddy Laboratories did not respond to email queries on their participation in the pre-bid meeting with the UP government and production-related details.
Imported doses of Sputnik will start being available in India next week, and local production is expected to start in July.