NEW DELHI, June 3: Lambasted by the Supreme Court and the Delhi High Court on Wednesday for its “arbitrary and irrational” vaccination policy, the centre on Thursday said it had signed a deal with Hyderabad-based Biological-E for 30 crore doses of Covid-19 vaccine currently in clinical trials.
The Union Health Ministry will make an advance payment of Rs 1,500 crore to the company for the same.
The shot being developed by Biological-E is a RBD protein sub-unit vaccine and is likely to be available in the next few months.
The doses will be manufactured and stockpiled by Biological-E from August to December 2021, the ministry said.
Biological-E’s vaccine is currently in Phase-3 clinical trials after showing promising results in Phase 1 and 2, the government said in a statement. The company’s proposal was examined and recommended for approval by the National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration for Covid-19 (NEGVAC).
The move comes days after the Centre said it would complete the vaccination exercise in India by December.
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court said the Centre’s policy of arranging free Covid-19 jabs for the 45-plus age category, Health Care Workers (HCW) and Front Line Workers (FLW) while asking the 18-44 age group to pay was “prima facie arbitrary and irrational.”
The Delhi High Court, too, had pulled up the Centre on Wednesday saying some people need to be “charged with manslaugher” for sitting on the “untapped potential” of Covid-19 vaccine manufacturing.
India is currently administering three vaccines to the people, “Covaxin” (Bharat Biotech), “Covishield” (Serum Institute of India) and Sputnik V from Russia.
Meanwhile, the foreign secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla said India was in talks to allow major foreign vaccine manufacturers to carry out “local manufacturing” as the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) asserted it was making “all efforts” to increase vaccine supplies, particularly from the U.S.
Addressing the World Health Organisation’s South-East Asia Regional Health Partners’ Forum, Shringla said India was fighting an “exceptionally severe second wave”of the pandemic.
“We are also part of the discussions with major vaccine manufacturers like Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson and Moderna about sourcing and possible local manufacturing of their vaccines in India. We have also helped expedite the introduction of Sputnik-V vaccines,” he said, elaborating on the MEA’s role in securing vaccines.
In an order on February 5 last, U.S. President Joe Biden had invoked the Defence Production Act for vaccine components, putting a squeeze on India’s vaccine manufacturing.
India had been demanding easier access to raw materials necessary for vaccine production.
Shringla said MEA’s representatives have been working to “ease regulatory disruptions to these supply chains”.
MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi, replying to questions on the outcome of external affairs minister S Jaishankar’s week-long U.S. visit, said, “We are also engaged with the U.S. administration to ensure that necessary components and raw materials for vaccine production in India are readily available. This issue was taken up most recently during External Affairs Minister [Jaishankar]’s visit to the U.S.”
India was also awaiting the U.S. allocations from its surplus stockpile of 80 million Astra Zeneca vaccines, he added.
In his address to the WHO, Shringla said India would create “global scale capacities” necessary to fight the pandemic. “A number of serious global conversations are underway on this in platforms such as the G7, the G20, QUAD, BRICS, the United Nations and the WTO itself,” he noted.
(Manas Dasgupta)
