Maharashtra seeks national policy on vaccine import, asks Centre to buy on behalf of states

Maharashtra has demanded a national policy on import of Covid-19 vaccines to avoid “unhealthy competition” and profiteering by vaccine manufacturing companies from other countries

Maharashtra has demanded a national policy on import of Covid-19 vaccines to avoid “unhealthy competition” and profiteering by vaccine manufacturing companies from other countries. The state has also requested the Centre to procure vaccines on behalf of all states for fair price and uniformity in scheduling.

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State health minister Rajesh Tope, along with health ministers from five other states, participated in a video-conference with Union health minister Dr Harsh Vardhan on Thursday. Maharashtra pressed for a national policy on vaccine import and more vaccine doses for the state for inoculating the second dose to beneficiaries aged above 45 years, Tope said after the meeting.

“Almost all the states participated in the interaction sought policy on the procurement of vaccines from other countries. Currently every state is going for global tenders for procurement of vaccines manufactured in other countries amid the shortage. This would lead to unhealthy competition among the states. The vaccine manufacturing companies from other countries will prove to be beneficiaries of the competition among Indian states; they will look at it as an opportunity to earn more profit. Ultimately, the nation will be at a loss. It should be avoided,” Tope said to have suggested to the Centre.

The minister said if the Centre floated global tender on behalf of states, India could procure the vaccines at competitive prices. “Intervention by the Centre in this respect is important. It should float a tender on the basis of demand of vaccines by the states, and should also fix the schedule for vaccination of these imported jabs. The Centre can bring clarity on the use of these imported vaccines, their prices and monitoring for states in the framework of the policy,” he said. He further added that the policy would help weed out the confusion among states related to vaccines developed by other countries and approved by the World Health Organization (WHO).

Maharashtra has also demanded for more vaccines for the state to complete vaccination of more than 2 million people who are waiting for their second dose.

It has also demanded curtailment of the maximum retail price (MRP) of Amphotericin B injection which is utilised in treating mucormycosis, a fungal infection among recovered Covid-19 patients. “Maharashtra has around 1,500 such patients who need multiple injections, ranging between 20 and 40, with each costing at ₹6,000. We have demanded that the MRP of such injections be reduced to make them affordable to the patients. The MRP is too high, forbidding regulators to take any action. Similarly, the manufacturing companies of this drug should be asked to ramp up production. We have also requested the Centre to allot us an extra quota of the injections in the ratio of the patients in the state,” he said.