Maharashtra: Global Covid-19 vaccine bids stuck in limbo

Even as the Maharashtra government and Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) are scrutinising the responses they received for their respective global bids to purchase Covid-19 vaccine doses, state officials said they cannot proceed unless the Centre clarifies on dealing with intermediaries to procure vaccines

Even as the Maharashtra government and Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) are scrutinising the responses they received for their respective global bids to purchase Covid-19 vaccine doses, state officials said they cannot proceed unless the Centre clarifies on dealing with intermediaries to procure vaccines. Both the state government and BMC are scrutinising documents, ascertaining links between the companies that have responded and the manufacturers. The BMC received two more proposals on Tuesday from bidders offering Indian vaccines, the last day set by the civic body to accept bids.

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The state government’s attempts to get foreign vaccines to boost its inoculation drive seem to have hit a roadblock. The application window for the state was closed on May 25, following which no extension was given, officials said. If the companies that have shown interest to supply vaccine doses are unable to establish connection with the manufacturing companies, it is curtains for the state’s tendering process. It will then primarily have to rely on stock from two Indian vaccine manufacturers, Serum Institute of India and Bharat Biotech.

On Tuesday, BMC decided to close the application window for its global expression of interest it had floated for procuring 10 million Covid-19 vaccine doses on May 12. The civic body added that it has got nine proposals to supply Covid-19 vaccines and will carry out a detailed scrutiny process in the next three days. Similarly, Maharashtra government, which got eight responses, is also seeking documents from the interested companies. Besides that, the state has also written to the Centre, seeking clarity on engaging with intermediaries.

A senior bureaucrat said that so far, the government has not got any response from the Centre on the letter. “However, we have sought documents validating their (interested company’s) connection with the manufacturer. Pfizer and Moderna have said they have not appointed any agency. AstraZeneca cannot participate due to the tie up with Serum, Russian Direct Investment Fund has not responded to our letter seeking stock directly. Dr Reddy’ [Laboratories] can only supply, which again will be limited as it has to give 50% of its manufactured stock to the Central government, we will have to compete with other states for the remaining stock. This can be resolved to a large extent if the Centre formulates a policy and procures vaccines,” he said, requesting anonymity.

Maharashtra government’s attempt to float global bids is also seen as political posturing with an aim to put the onus back on the Centre to provide vaccines. State health minister Rajesh Tope has already demanded a central policy on vaccine import as well as asked the Centre to procure doses and distribute among the states and Union territories. Despite repeated attempts, health minister Tope or chief secretary Sitaram Kunte, who heads the state committee on global tenders, could not be reached for an official comment on the status of the tendering process.

Meanwhile, the BMC received two proposals on Tuesday, taking the total tally of responses received to nine. Both the proposals received on Tuesday are from Indian suppliers, of which one has proposed to supply Sputnik and one has promised to supply any approved Covid vaccine. The other seven proposals, too, are for supplying Sputnik V and Sputnik Light.

The BMC had floated the global bid on May 12 after which it gave extension on two dates of which the last one was on May 25. Post this, the BMC had announced receiving bids for supplying Russian Sputnik, Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccine. However, last week both Pfizer and the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) in a joint statement with Dr Reddy’s denied giving authority to any other third party for selling, marketing or distributing its vaccine.

On Tuesday, the BMC in a statement said, “Supply of Covid-19 preventive vaccine was earlier extended on 18 May 2021 and 25 May 2021. Proposals received by the deadline are now being scrutinised. This means that the expression of interest has not been extended. The scrutiny will take place as it is important to examine the business relationship between suppliers who are willing to supply vaccines and companies that actually produce vaccines.”

P Velrasu, additional municipal commissioner of the BMC, had last week told HT, “We will check the papers and validate the connection to manufacturers. If no proper connection is established, then we will not process further. We will check the shortlisted proposals through appropriate government channels.”

Maharashtra administered 250,407 doses till 9 pm on Tuesday across 3,661 centres, according to the data on the CoWin portal. So far, the state has administered 22,848,402 doses since the vaccination drive commenced on January 16. The state has so far fully vaccinated 4,616,067 beneficiaries, the data showed.