UP in talks with Dr Reddy’s, Zydus for vaccine doses

NEW DELHI: 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