NEW DELHI, May 11: At least two non-BJP chief ministers have written letters to the prime minister Narendra Modi suggesting the centre to end the patent law for Covid-19 vaccine to allow other interested manufacturers to produce “Covishield” and “Covaxin” to ramp up vaccine production in the country.
In almost identical letters the Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and Telangana chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy pointed out that at the present rate of manufacturing of vaccines by the Pune-based Serum Institute of India, holding license for Covishield, and Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech manufacturing Covaxin would take years to meet the vaccine requirement of the entire country unless other interested pharma companies were given the formula to manufacture the vaccines. The experts have estimated that at the current rate of vaccine production, it would take about three and half years for India to complete its universal vaccine mission.
In his letter, Kejriwal said the current supply of vaccine doses was not sustainable to meet the whole country’s demand, which will in turn be an arsenal in India’s fight against the deadly virus.
Kejriwal, in his letter, wrote the Indian government can do away with vaccine production monopoly using the patent law. “This way we will be able to provide a safety net to the whole country before the third wave of Covid-19 and save lives of people.”
“The second wave of Covid is very fatal and the disease has reached the villages with many lives lost… There is need to vaccinate all the citizens as soon as possible… Presently only two companies are manufacturing vaccines in India. Providing vaccine to the whole country through two companies only is not possible. It requires ramping up vaccine manufacturing at war footing,” Kejriwal said.
It further said, “I request you to grant permission for mass production of the vaccines. Every company in the country that has capacity of safe production should manufacture the vaccine.”
The CM asked the Central government to share the vaccine formulas and allow more companies to scale up production.
“The Centre has the power to make the vaccine formula public and distribute to those who are interested in making it. During the crisis in PPE kits last year, we allowed many companies to make the kits. Likewise, we should do the same in terms of vaccine manufacturing,” he said further.
Jagan Mohan Reddy also requested the Prime Minister to transfer the Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) of Covaxin to vaccine manufacturers so production and inoculation both can be ramped up. He urged Modi to direct Bharat Biotech to transfer vaccine manufacturing technology of Covaxin to those capable and willing to produce Covid-19 vaccines, in order to help the country meet its vaccine demand. Reddy added that Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and the National Institute of Virology (NIV) should provide the viral strain to all interested vaccine manufacturers.
“We would request you to please direct Bharat Biotech to please do the technology transfer of manufacturing the Covaxin and ICMR-NIV to provide the viral strain to whoever interested and capable of producing the vaccine,” the chief minister wrote in the letter.
Covaxin, India’s first indigenously developed Covid-19 vaccine, is a collaborative effort between Bharat Biotech and ICMR. It was developed using the SARS-CoV-2 strain, isolated in the NIV in Pune, which functions under ICMR. The ICMR and Bharat Biotech jointly carried out the clinical and pre-clinical trials in India.
“It may take several months to get all vaccinated at this pace. Please explore the possibility of involving all such production firms and enable them with the technology, intellectual property rights to deliver the vaccine as quickly and as affordable as possible,” he wrote.
Meanwhile, the central government said the states and union territories would receive 7,29,610 additional vaccine doses within the next three days. More than 90 lakh Covid-19 vaccine doses are still available with states and UTs which will receive over 7 lakh additional doses in the next three days, the Union Health Ministry said on Tuesday.
The Centre has so far provided more than 18 crore vaccine doses (18,00,03,160) to states and UTs free of cost.
Of this, the total consumption including wastages is 17,09,71,429 doses.
“More than 90 lakh COVID Vaccine doses (90,31,691) are still available with the states and UTs to be administered. States with negative balance are showing more consumption (including wastage) than vaccine supplied as they have not reconciled the vaccine they have supplied to Armed Forces,” the ministry said.
States and UTs will receive 7,29,610 additional vaccine doses in addition within the next three days.
The government said India had administered 172,633,761 vaccine doses till May 10. This included 9,563,406 healthcare workers who have had their first dose and 6,505,072 who have got their second dose as well. As many as 14,049,681 frontline workers have had their first dose while 7,851,075 have got their second dose too.
In the 45-59-year age group, 55,497,658 people have got their first dose and another 7,173,939 have had their second dose as well. In the 60+ category, 53,800,706 people have been administered their first dose while 15,639,381 have had their second dose as well.
In the newly added category of 18-44 year age group, 518,479 beneficiaries received their first dose of Covid vaccine on Monday and cumulatively, 2,552,843 of this age group have been vaccinated across 30 states and Union Territories.
(Manas Dasgupta)