Maharashtra govt floats global tenders for 50 million vaccine doses

After the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), the Maharashtra government, too, has floated a global tender for procuring 50 million doses of the 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

After the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), the Maharashtra government, too, has floated a global tender for procuring 50 million doses of the 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.

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In its expression of interest (EoI), which was issued on Monday, the state government has put the onus of getting Central approvals on bidders. Though the state has floated the global tenders, there is no clarity on many aspects, including legal indemnity, whether to procure from the source country, the transportation of the stock, duties on them, among others. The state government is aiming at importing the doses of the vaccines manufactured by Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, Zydus Cadilla, among others.

“The biggest hurdle would be the storage and transportation of the vaccines, which need to be kept at minus 70 degrees Celsius. None of our cities have such infrastructure to maintain the shots at that temperature. Since it has now become the sellers’ market with huge demand from across the globe, the manufacturers have been asking us to procure from manufacturing facilities. It will need robust logistical means to procure the shots that need to be kept at minus 70 degree celsius,” said an official. requesting anonymity as he was not authorised to speak to the media.

The official said that though the centre has allowed the state to import the vaccines even before they are given clinical approvals, there is no clarity on other issues. He said that the issues like legal indemnity, import related nods and duty/taxes on import of such stocks are still grey areas.

Another official from the health department said that price we are expected to pay per dose for these imported vaccine would be huge and may throw the government budget for a toss.

“Most of these vaccines are expected to cost us more than ₹2,000 a dose against our local level procurement of ₹300 and ₹400 a dose. There would be limitations on import of vaccines due to this aspect too. Since the Centre has allowed private sector hospitals and corporate houses to directly procure the vaccines from two domestic players, we cannot even divert the imported stock to the private sector too,” he added. The officer also expressed apprehension over the response to the bids amid all these factors related to the import.

Meanwhile, the Centre has not responded to state government’s request for permission to develop its own app for vaccination.

Last week, chief minister Uddhav Thackeray had sought permission since there have been lots of complaints about the Cowin portal