Maha says eight global vax bids in; are deals possible?

Tope says offers for supply of Pfizer, Astrazeneca and Sputnik shots; not clear how proposals can move forward as Pfizer firm on dealing with only Centre and jab is yet to be cleared for use; Astrazeneca bound by SII pact

The Maharashtra government said it has received eight responses to its global tenders for supplying Covid-19 vaccines, the deadline for which ended on Tuesday. Health minister Rajesh Tope said the state has received bids for the supply of vaccines manufactured by Pfizer, Sputnik and AstraZeneca, even as nothing has been spelt out on how the proposals can go forward, considering one, Pfizer has reiterated its stance on dealing with only the Centre and that the vaccine is yet to be cleared for use in the country; two, Astrazeneca already has a pact with the Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII), which is manufacturing the same vaccine under the Covishield brand name; three, a few Indian companies have already got the licence to manufacture the Sputnik vaccine.

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Against this backdrop, government officials will scrutinise the documents, as they said it is too early to call the tendering process a success because the bids have been submitted by suppliers or middlemen, among several other issues concerning the authenticity of the proposals and an absence of a supply schedule.

Pfizer told HT that they have not appointed any supplier. “As stated earlier, during this pandemic phase, across the world, Pfizer is supplying its Covid-19 vaccine only to central Governments and supra-national organizations for deployment in national immunization programs. Neither Pfizer Inc nor any of its affiliates globally, including in India, have authorized anyone to import/market/distribute the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. We continue to have ongoing discussions with the Government of India towards making our vaccine available for use nationally,” said a Pfizer Company spokesperson.

According to officials, a total of eight firms have responded to the global tenders floated by the state. At least five of them offered to supply the Sputnik vaccines, while three have proposed to supply Pfizer, Astrazeneca and Moderna. Moderna, too, had said it will deal with only the Centre. Officials said they will verify the proposals and also have consultations with the bidders to decide if the bids can be processed further.

Earlier, Tope said, “As we all know, Pfizer is a US firm, while Sputnik and Astrazeneca are manufactured by Russian and UK firms respectively. The bidders have even quoted a price for a dose, but have not shared any schedule on supplies, which is the most important thing for us. If they provide us the schedule for vaccine supply, then Maharashtra is ready for procurement.”

On May 17, the state government floated an express of interest (EOI) for procuring 50 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines approved by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United States Food and Drug Administration, and are being manufactured in other countries. In the beginning, the last date for submitting the bids was May 20, which was extended till May 25. By floating global tenders, the state was aiming at importing the doses of the vaccines manufactured by Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, Zydus Cadila, Sputnik, among others.

While Tope seemed optimistic, state officials dealing with the process said that the response received by the state government is not directly from the manufacturing companies.

“All those who have submitted the bids are intermediaries. They have also not given any schedule for supply of doses. Following this, we have sent emails to each of them, seeking a schedule for supplies. We will also be holding a virtual meeting with them, seeking all the necessary information before taking any decision on the bids received,” said a senior official, requesting anonymity, as he is not authorised to talk to the media.

Each of them is ready to supply 10 million doses. The price quoted by them is in the range of 15 to 18 dollars per dose, which is likely to cost the state somewhere around Rs1,100 to Rs1,400 per dose, he added.

Officials said the significant part would be to verify if the claims made by the bidders are backed by the manufacturers and whether they are practically possible.

“We will have to consider factors such as the stance taken by companies such as Pfizer and Moderna, that they will deal only with the central government. They are also insisting on indemnity by the central government, which has not been resolved yet. In case of Sputnik, a bunch of Indian companies have got license to manufacture the vaccine and in such a case, they would have to follow Centre’s guidelines on sale of vaccine,” said another official, wishing not to be named. “Besides, we will have to consider whether AstraZeneca can supply in India since the Pune-based Serum Institute of India has an agreement with the former to manufacture and supply the same vaccine under ‘Covishield’ brand name,” said the official.

The state government had suspended its inoculation drive for those below 45 years due to non-availability of doses on May 12. It was trying to place orders with Indian and foreign manufacturers to replenish their stocks and reopen all centres.

The central government provides free doses for those coming under 45 years and above age group, but for the beneficiaries of the 18-45 age group, the stock has to be procured by the state government. The Indian manufacturers have also not given any confirmed supply schedule to the state, except assurance of improving supplies from June.