E-Paper
UP again extends deadline for submission of vaccine bids
Uttar Pradesh may have to wait for some more days to procure Covid vaccines from foreign or Indian companies as the state cabinet on Monday approved a proposal to further extend by 10 days the last date for the submission of bids in response to a global tender floated to get 40 million doses for the state
Uttar Pradesh may have to wait for some more days to procure Covid vaccines from foreign or Indian companies as the state cabinet on Monday approved a proposal to further extend by 10 days the last date for the submission of bids in response to a global tender floated to get 40 million doses for the state. June 10 is now the last date for the bids.
“Yes, we are extending the last date for the submission of bids by 10 days,” said additional chief secretary (health and family welfare) Amit Mohan Prasad.
This is the second such extension. It comes a day before the launch of vaccination for all above 18 years of age in all 75 districts of the state.
A senior officer of the state government said sufficient quantity of vaccine was available in Uttar Pradesh. The officer also said the state government proposed to administer one crore doses in June following the directives of chief minister Yogi Adityanath in this regard.
The state government had earlier fixed May 21 as the last date and then extended it by 10 days to May 31 on the request of the vaccine manufacturers.
A decision to further extend the last date was taken after briefing the state cabinet (by circulation method) about the demand and the availability of the vaccine for the 18-45 year age group.
Prasad said the last date was extended again on the request of the vaccine manufacturing companies that were keen to participate in the global tender. The representatives of the various companies again sought the extension on the same issues as earlier, including regulatory approval from the central government, Prasad said. Others said that they needed time to maintain the vaccine stock as, according to the bid conditions, the companies would have to supply the second dose after the first one, he added. The representative of another company said that they needed time for obtaining approval for the vaccine rate, the additional chief secretary said.
Even as foreign vaccine manufacturing companies Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson and Johnson have said that they have a policy to enter into agreements only with national governments, Uttar Pradesh government spokesperson and cabinet minister Sidharth Nath Singh said the UP government had opened channels with the foreign companies.
In the pre-bid meeting held on May 13, top vaccine manufacturing companies — Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, Zydus Cadila, Pfizer, Serum Institute of India (SII), Bharat Biotech and a Korean company — had raised the issues of storage and transportation of the vaccines and bid security. The state government on May 17 had revised the supply conditions, bid security and eligibility terms for the bidders to pave the way for the participation of maximum companies. In the revised tender, the state government stated that the manufacturers of vaccines requiring storage or transportation at temperatures like -20 degrees Celsius, -70 degrees Celsius or -80 degrees Celsius can participate in the tender, thereby paving the way for the entry of foreign vaccine manufacturers like Moderna, Pfizer and Johnson and Johnson in the global tender.
The vaccines manufactured by Moderna and Pfizer are stored at low temperatures, an official said.
