Malta Firm expresses interest in supplying 60 million Sputnik V vaccine doses to Haryana

A company in Malta has expressed interest in supplying 60 million doses of Russia's COVID-19 vaccine 'Sputnik V' to Haryana, the state government said on Sunday. According to the Haryana administration, Europe-based Pharma Regulatory Services Ltd has submitted an "Expression of Interest" in directly supplying the COVID-19 doses to Haryana at the price of  Rs.1,120 per dose. With this, Haryana becomes the first state to receive an EOI from a foreign company for direct vaccination supply. 

"As per the offer made by the firm, the per dose cost of the vaccine will be nearly Rs. 1,120. The firm has further given a timeline of 30 days to supply the first batch of 5 lakh doses, followed by 1 million doses every 20 days till supply is completed against a letter of credit issued in their name," the Haryana government said in a statement.

Haryana floats global tender

To expedite the vaccination drive in the state, the Haryana Medical Services Corporation Ltd (HMSCL) on May 26 issued a global tender asking companies to directly supply COVID-19 vaccines to the state, however it was closed on June 5 after it received no bids. Notably, the Maltese firm missed the deadline nonetheless, it expressed interest in supplying 'Sputnik V' to Haryana.  

Even though the European firm was late in submitting its EOI, Haryana Additional Chief Secretary of Health Rajeev Arora has announced that the Haryana government will review the bid seriously to see if it fits the contract’s parameters

“Although no bid was received in the tender but an international pharma company with its headquarters in Malta namely Pharma Regulatory Services Limited has given an expression of Interest to HMSCL to provide up to 60 million doses of Sputnik V vaccine manufactured by Gamaleya Institute and Russian Direct Investment," the Haryana government said.