Private hospitals clueless on disposal of expired doses, SII cites ‘no return policy’

An official from SII said that while they are flooded with calls and requests to take expired vaccines back, they also do not have any clarity on the matter.

Mumbai: Nearly two weeks after a significant number of Covid-19 doses expired in the city, private hospitals are still in limbo about their disposal. Some hospitals even approached the Serum Institute of Inda (SII), which has manufactured the vaccine, seeking to return it. However, the vaccine maker has said that the invoice clearly mentioned a no return policy, sources said.

The official from SII, however, said that CoWin portal does not have a return provision, which makes it further difficult. (AFP)

An official from SII said that while they are flooded with calls and requests to take expired vaccines back, they also do not have any clarity on the matter. “In normal circumstances, medicines and vaccines that get expired are returned to the manufacturer. But they are licensed under general usage and sold through retail or distribution channels. In this case, it was under emergency authorisation and was via the CoWin portal,” the official said, requesting anonymity.

“We have to tell private hospitals about the no return policy mentioned in the invoice. Also, we too do not have clarity on what has to be done with the expired vials of Covishield with the private sector at present,” said the source.

It was in December 2021 that the private health sector had raised concerns over a large number of vaccines that were set to expire in March-June 2022. In Mumbai, for instance, additional municipal commissioner Suresh Kakani had told HT earlier this month that around two lakh doses are set to expire by June 2022.

Dr Gautam Bhansali, the chief coordinator of private hospitals for vaccination and Covid, said, “We are speaking to the manufacturer to guide us on how to dispose of the expired vaccines. We have not got any clarity yet.”

The official from SII, however, said that CoWin portal does not have a return provision, which makes it further difficult.

In the absence of any clarity, private hospitals are presently storing them in their cold storage.

The Food and Drugs Administration had earlier told HT that the hospitals have to follow the same distribution channel through which they have procured the vaccines from the manufacturer.

“It will be the manufacturer who will dispose of the expired vaccines after following the biomedical norms of the pollution control board,” said D R Gahane, joint commissioner, FDA.

Kakani said they are still awaiting guidelines from the state.

“The expired vaccines have now become a liability as my cold storage is occupied with them. We have been asking the corporation for guidelines. We have also asked the manufacturer,” said Dr Prince Surana, CEO, Surana Sethia Hospital, which has over 60,000 expired doses.

The Centre had issued a circular on February 23 to all the state governments that they had no objections if the latter considers the exchange of near-expiry doses of private hospitals with long expiry vaccines with government centres. However, on February 25, the Maharashtra government said it will not exchange Covid vaccines facing expiry but the private sector can donate them or administer jabs at civic-run vaccination centres.

Since the vaccination drive was started last year, private hospitals have administered 63,55,024 doses in Mumbai. The public vaccination centres have done a total of 1,36,92,079 vaccinations till Saturday in Mumbai. The daily total vaccination doses given at BMC run vaccination centres is around 15,000 to 18,000, whereas the number stands at 1,500-1,700 at private hospitals.