‘Moderna, Pfizer will only deal with Centre’
NEW DELHI US pharmaceutical giants Pfizer and Moderna have informed the Delhi government that “they will deal with the Central government” only and not sell Covid-19 vaccines individually to any state, said chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday. This comes at a time when government vaccination centres in Delhi have been closed for those below 45 years due to non-availability of doses and the government is trying to place orders with Indian and foreign manufacturers to replenish their stocks and reopen all centres.
“We have spoken to Pfizer and Moderna for vaccines, and both the manufacturers have refused to sell directly to us. They have said they will deal with the Central government. We appeal to the Centre to import vaccines and distribute to the states,” Kejriwal told reporters on Monday. His statement also comes a day after Punjab said Moderna has refused to sell vaccines directly to the state.
Kejriwal added: “We need vaccines. The Centre talked to Moderna, and Pfizer, and completed negotiations within 2-3 days. Why can’t it talk again to [vaccine] companies and complete negotiations in 3-4 days? Why is it not being done urgently? Bharat Biotech, which is manufacturing Covaxin, is willing to share its formula with everyone. A national newspaper reported that 16 companies here can produce Covaxin. Out of them, Bharat Biotech has struck a deal with only two companies. The Centre should order, not request, these 16 companies to start production within the next few days.”
He added, “According to that report, if the 16 companies start production, they can produce 250 million vaccines every month. Then why are we not making these? Take the example of UK and USA. There are less than 18,000 cases in the USA. That shows that vaccine is the only solution to this [crisis]. Covaxin [stock in Delhi] is over but Covishield is left for a few days.”
In the afternoon, in a press briefing, deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia said the Delhi government has reached out to
Moderna, Pfizer and Johnson&johnson for vaccines, of which the former two have refused.
“We asked the Centre for vaccines for the younger people, to which it replied that Delhi will only get 400,000 and the rest must be procured through a global tender. So, we reached out to foreign manufacturers and they have said they will only give to the Centre. The Central government has made vaccines a joke in India,” Sisodia said.
“The Centre is solely responsible for vaccine shortage in the country. It failed to manage and sustain its vaccination drive. It was the Centre’s responsibility to make vaccines available to the entire country, but it chose to sell doses to others first merely for image management across the globe,” he said.