Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Nov 28: With an effective Corona vaccine believed to be round the corner, the Luxembourg –based refrigeration firm for transportation of medical equipment “B Medical Systems” will be setting up a specialised refrigerated vaccine transportation plant in Gujarat to ensure last mile drug delivery to villages all over the country.
A high-level team from Luxembourg is expected in Gujarat next week to the set up the vaccine cold chain which would include solar vaccine refrigerators, freezers and transport boxes.
According to official sources, the Luxembourg prime minister Xavier Bettel had given the offer to his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi for setting up of the cold chain in India during the first bilateral summit on November 19. Modi, who had for some time discussing with the concerned authorities various modalities for the vaccine delivery and transportation issues, grabbed the opportunity with both hands and took a spot decision to make arrangements for setting up the base unit in his home state Gujarat. Considering the urgency of the matter, he also made arrangements for pushing the issue from both ends for early measures in this direction asking the company and the Gujarat government to get in touch with each other for immediate initial steps.
The urgency from the Indian side could be gauged from the fact that while the external affairs minister S Jaishankar is personally monitoring the Luxembourg proposal, Santosh Jha, India’s ambassador to the European Union, virtually met CEO and deputy CEO of the company on November 20 itself, the very next day of the offer given by Bettel, to finalise the arrangements.
The sources said since the setting up of a full-fledged plant would require nearly two years, the company has decided to start by getting only the refrigeration boxes from Luxembourg and source the best content from the domestic market under the “Aatmanirbhar Bharat” programme. The refrigerated transport boxes will be able to deliver vaccine between four degrees Celsius to minus 20 degree Celsius even though the company has the technology to transport vaccine at minus 80 degrees Celsius.
While the refrigerated boxes, powered by solar, kerosene, gas and electricity, are expected to be ready for delivery by March 2021, the B Medical Systems company will set up a full-fledged plant in Gujarat in phase II for not only supplying to Indian requirement but also exporting it to other countries.
B Medical Systems is a Luxembourg based pioneer in the medical equipment industry. It was founded in 1979 when the World Health Organization (WHO) approached the mother company Electrolux in Vianden to provide a solution for safely storing and transporting vaccines all over the world. The company is also a world leader in blood bank and plasma storage refrigerators.
Meanwhile, as Modi undertook a “vaccine tour” visiting the vaccine manufacturing facilities in Ahmedabad, Hyderabad and Pune for a first-hand information on the progress, production, safety and delivery of the vaccine candidates getting ready in India, the overall tally of Coronavirus cases in the country went up to 9,309,787. The country recorded 43,082 fresh Covid-19 cases and 492 deaths in the last 24 hours, as per the official data of Union Health Ministry.
Modi after his visit to Zydus Biotech Park in Ahmedabad in a tweet said, “Visited the Zydus Biotech Park in Ahmedabad to know more about the indigenous DNA based vaccine being developed by Zydus Cadila. I compliment the team behind this effort for their work. Government of India is actively working with them to support them in this journey.”
From Ahmedabad, Modi flew to Hyderabad to visit the Bharat Biotech facility to personally review the vaccine development and manufacturing process for Covid. After the visit, he tweeted, “at the Bharat Biotech facility in Hyderabad, was briefed about their indigenous COVID-19 vaccine. Congratulated the scientists for their progress in the trials so far. Their team is closely working with ICMR to facilitate speedy progress.”
The official sources said the preparation for Covid-19 vaccine was in full swing. Russia had agreed to make 100 million doses of its Covid-19 vaccine Sputnik V in collaboration with the Indian pharmaceutical company Hetero in India. Phase-3 trial of Covaxin — the indigenous vaccine being developed by Bharat Biotech — began in Ahmedabad on Thursday. Serum Institute of India (SII), Pune, which also Modi visited to know about the progress, is also preparing for emergency mass production of vaccine developed by Oxford University – AstraZeneca once the third phase trail is completed.