New Delhi, May 13 (PTI) The Delhi government has urged the Centre to cap the prices of COVID-19 vaccines and buy them from the international market rather than states doing it themselves, Health Minister Satyendar Jain said on Thursday.

In a meeting with Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan via video conference, Jain said he also asserted that the companies preparing the two vaccines -- Covishield and Covaxin-- should share the formula with other firms to ramp up production.

"The two companies preparing Covishield and Covaxin must share the formula with other companies to prepare the vaccines.

"It is widely known that India is home to the biggest and most prominent vaccine manufacturers in the world. Hence, a number of companies are capable of manufacturing and mobilising them into the market for the public," he told reporters.

In the meeting with Vardhan, Jain also highlighted how "the manufacturers of Covaxin and Covishield have considered this crisis to be an opportunity to generate high profits".

Elaborating about the numbers, Jain claimed that Covishield is being supplied to the Centre at Rs 150, and its manufacturing company chairman has stated on-record that they are incurring huge profits.

The company, he said, is manufacturing six crore vaccines every month. Even if we go by a profit of Rs 10 per dose, and they give half of the vaccines to the Centre, which is three crore, the estimated profit comes out to be Rs 30 crore.

Delhi's health minister said the same vaccine is being sold to the state governments at Rs 300, which means the profit doubles, while the cost of production remains the same.

Not only that, the same vaccine is being sold at Rs 400 to private entities, and the profit incurred goes up to Rs 260 per dose (considering that their cost of production would be Rs 140), he claimed.

"By this entire estimation, the company generates a humongous profit of Rs 960 crore in just one month," he further said.

"India is home to a younger population, where more than 100 crore people are above the age of 18. And for these 100 crore people, we need at least 200 crore doses. If we take 100 crore doses from one company and the other 100 crore from another, both of them make a profit of Rs 16,000 crore each.

"Now, coming to Covaxin, which is supplying vaccines at an even higher rate, their profit would be higher than what the manufacturers of Covishield are making," he claimed.

Highlighting these figures, Jain urged the Centre apply a uniform rate for all -- that of Rs 150 to the Centre should also be kept for the state governments and private entities.

"This is because the companies are anyhow generating profit at this rate of Rs 150, so why is this gap of rates higher than that being done?

"In times of such crisis when the nation is battling the atrocities of the pandemic, we cannot let the companies make such huge profits," he said.

The health minister also stressed on the policy of 'One Nation, One Tender' during the meeting.

"For the vaccines being purchased from overseas nations, instead of every state preparing its own tender, the Centre should prepare one for the entire nation, and purchase it on behalf of all the states. One Nation, One Tender policy should be implemented, keeping in view that a tender from different states would not put India in good light," he stressed.

Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia had earlier accused the BJP-led Centre of "forcing" states to go in the international market to procure vaccines. He had said Delhi will float a global tender for procuring coronavirus vaccines.

When asked about Delhi government's global tendering announcement, Jain said, "We want the Centre to procure vaccines. If they won't agree, we will procure vaccines somehow."

He also highlighted the necessity of delegating the CoWIN software to states, and said not everyone in India, especially rural populace has a smartphone.

"In this, online registration and scheduling of appointments is to be done. This is extremely difficult for those who do not have a smartphone and don't know English. This should be left on to the states as to how they are going to facilitate the vaccination programme. You provide us vaccines, we will carry out vaccination," Jain said.

He also said Delhi has not received any doses of the Sputnik V vaccine yet.

He emphasised that the Centre should supply sufficient vaccines at the earliest so that the Delhi government can facilitate mass vaccination programme and chalk out plans to inoculate on a large scale.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)