India News | States Floated Global Tenders for Covid Vaccines but None Materialised into Procurement: Mandaviya

New Delhi, Jul 23 (PTI) Some states had floated global tenders for COVID-19 vaccines in May but none of these materialised into procurement, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya informed Lok Sabha on Friday.

Multiple and repeated demands were made by states and union territories to the government of India that they be allowed to procure vaccines directly and administer them as per their requirements, and such global tenders were placed by them in May 2021, Mandaviya said in a written reply.

"However, none of the tenders floated by any state government materialised into procurement of Covid vaccines from any vaccine manufacturers, including offshore manufacturers," he said.

Later on, many states communicated to the government of India that they were facing difficulties in managing the funding and logistics of direct procurement of Covid vaccines.

"This in turn impacted the pace of the National COVID-19 Vaccination Program. Keeping in view the repeated requests received from states, and the experience gained, the Guidelines for National COVID Vaccination Program were reviewed and 'Revised Guidelines for Implementation of National COVID Vaccination Program' were issued on June 8, 2021, to be effective from June 21," he said in the written reply.

In accordance with these guidelines, the government of India is procuring 75 per cent of the vaccines being produced by the vaccine manufacturers in the country.

These vaccines are provided free of cost to states and UTs on the basis of their pro-rata target population and consumption pattern as well as vaccine wastage, the minister said.

The government of India is aware of the global demand-supply gap due to which many countries are facing difficulties in procuring COVID-19 vaccines for their eligible population, he said.

Accordingly, many steps have been taken to augment the domestic manufacturing capacity of COVID-19 vaccines, Mandaviya stated.

These include advance payments for vaccine procurement to Serum Institute of India and M/s Bharat Biotech, support to Bharat Biotech and three Public Sector Enterprises (PSEs) under 'Mission COVID Suraksha- the Indian COVID-19 Vaccine Development Mission', technology transfer of Covaxin production, financial assistance to one of the domestic vaccine manufacturers i.e Biological E for 'At-risk manufacturing' and streamlining of regulatory norms for approval of vaccines.

These steps will facilitate availability of adequate quantity of COVID-19 vaccines, he added.

(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)