Mumbai: BMC gets 8 offers to supply 10 million Covid vaccine doses

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Tuesday said it has received eight proposals for supplying 10 million Covid-19 vaccine doses, in response to its global tenders, but it extended the duration for the same till June 1

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Tuesday said it has received eight proposals for supplying 10 million Covid-19 vaccine doses, in response to its global tenders, but it extended the duration for the same till June 1. Of the eight, seven proposals are for supplying Russia’s Sputnik V and one is for supplying Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines. The BMC said further scrutiny is ongoing, and the last date for submitting proposals has been extended up to June 1, 2021. Civic officials said they have to screen the proposals as all bids seem to be coming from suppliers or middlemen and not manufacturers. They will have to consider various factors, including latest developments such as the decision of companies like Pfizer to deal with only the central government and Indian companies getting licence to manufacture Sputnik. Besides, they will have to consider whether AstraZeneca can supply in India since the Pune-based Serum Institute of India is manufacturing the same vaccine under Covishield brand name.

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“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.

The first civic body in India to seek vaccine supply directly from the international market, the BMC had on May 12 floated a global expression of interest (EOI). The duration for the same ended on May 18, but the deadline of the same was extended till May 25. Last week, it had said it received three proposals, but the proposals were lacking some documents, due to which the last date was extended up to May 25. The three proposals were for supplying Russia’s Sputnik, of which one was a UK-based company and two were Indian firms. The price range in all the three proposals was around Rs1,500 for both doses.

Municipal commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal said, “In response to our global EoI for procurement of 1 crore vaccine doses (10 million), eight bids have been received till date. One bid is for Pfizer/AstraZeneca and the remaining seven are for Sputnik. The time period has been extended by one week to enable various bidders to submit a complete set of documents in support of the bids as prescribed under BMC’s global EoI. Further, any additional bid shall also be entertained.”

According to BMC, of the seven suppliers who have shown interest in supplying Sputnik V, one has also offered to supply Sputnik Light (a single-dose vaccine). Civic officials said they had video conferencing with all the eight suppliers and have asked them to submit the supporting documents, which will include supply schedule, supply quantity, supply price including taxes etc.

In a statement issued on Tuesday, the BMC said, “The BMC is currently scrutinising documents submitted considering it is important to examine the business relationship between suppliers who are willing to supply vaccines and companies that actually manufacture the vaccines. This is to ensure that the supply of vaccine is ensured in a time-bound and smooth manner. The scrutiny is also being done on the basis of the period in which vaccines will be supplied, number of vaccines, and its price etc.”

Meanwhile, the BMC plans to aggressively undertake the vaccination drive once it receives additional doses in the form of mobile vaccination centres. As of Tuesday, 3,014,743 citizens were vaccinated, of which 99,206 were in the age group of 18 to 45, followed by 1,065,041 in 45 to 59, 1,189,999 above 60 years of age and remaining were health care and frontline workers. On Tuesday alone, 34,265 citizens were vaccinated.