NEW DELHI: Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain said that the central government should come up with ‘One Nation, One Policy’ and float a global tender for buying Covid-19 vaccines from international markets.
“For Vaccines being purchased from overseas, every state is floating individual tenders. One nation, one tender policy should be implemented, keeping in view that a tender from different states would not put India in a good light,” he said during in a meeting with the Union Health Minister Harsha Vardhan.
Jain said that private players like Serum Institute of India and Bharat Biotech are making huge profit of almost Rs 16,000 crore on 100 crore doses of vaccine turning the citizens’ plight into an oppurtunity.
He elaborated that assuming a profit of Rs 10 per dose, the manufacturing company produces 6 crore doses per month, it incurs Rs 30 crore profit from the Centre, Rs 240 crore from states and Rs 690 crore from the private sector. The total of which comes out to be approximately Rs 960 crore. Which means the profit on one crore doses would be Rs 160 crore and a profit of Rs 16,000 crore on 100 crore doses.
Jain demanded that a cap Rs 150 should be fixed for the dose in all central, state and private facilities.
“The two companies preparing Covishield and Covaxin, must share the formula for preparation of these vaccines to other companies as well. It is widely known that India is home to the biggest and most prominent vaccine manufacturers in the world. Hence, a number of companies are capable of manufacturing it and mobilising it into the market for the public,” said Jain.
Citing the necessity of delegating the CoWIN software to states, and the fact that not everyone in India, especially rural populace has a smartphone, Jain added, “CoWIN software is completely handled by the Centre. This should be left onto the states as to how they are going to facilitate the vaccination programme.” The Health Minister further said that the national capital has not received any doses of the Sputnik V vaccine yet.