Chhattisgarh CM wants Bharat Biotech to sell its vaccines cheaper than SII, writes to PM

On Thursday, Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel wrote to PM Modi regarding the new vaccination phase beginning May 1 whereby all adults can get inoculated. Mentioning that persons aged above 18 will be administered the COVID-19 vaccine free of cost, Baghel requested information on the number of doses to be provided by the Centre and the approximate number of doses to be supplied by Bharat Biotech as well as Serum Institute of India. He also demanded the cost at which both these vaccine manufacturers are selling the vaccine doses to the state as well as the Union government.

According to him, COVAXIN should be sold at the same rates to the Centre as well as the Chhattisgarh government and at a lower cost than COVISHIELD as the former has been developed in collaboration with the Indian government. Baghel contended that this information should be given at the earliest so that the state can prepare efficiently for the mega vaccination drive. Currently, there are 1,22,751 active cases in Chhattisgarh while 4,59,600 patients have been discharged and 6467 fatalities have been recorded. 

Centre relaxes vaccination policy

Apart from COVISHIELD and COVAXIN, the DCGI accepted the recommendations of the Subject Expert Committee of the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation, paving way for the approval of Sputnik V on April 12. Moreover, the Union government declared that those vaccines that have been granted emergency approval for restricted use by USFDA, EMA, UK MHRA, PMDA Japan, or which are listed in WHO (Emergency Use Listing) will be granted emergency use approval in India. In place of the local clinical trial requirement, the post-approval bridging clinical trial shall be mandated.

In a huge announcement on Monday, the Centre relaxed the age bar for vaccination from May 1 onwards and mentioned that vaccine manufacturers can supply 50 per cent of its doses to state governments and in the open market. The private hospitals shall have to procure their supplies of the COVID-19 vaccines exclusively from this quota. The private vaccination providers shall transparently declare their self-set vaccination price.

However, they will have to follow all protocols such as being captured on the CoWIN platform and linked to AEFI reporting. At the same time, vaccination shall continue at Government of India vaccination centres for healthcare and frontline workers and those above 45 years. Additionally, the Centre stated that it will allocate vaccine doses to the states from the remaining 50% quota based on factors such as the number of active cases, speed of administration and vaccine wastage.