Health aggregators may join COVID-19 vaccination drive: Report

A health worker checks the Covishied, a COVID-19 vaccine manufactured by Serum Institute of India, as she prepares to start vaccination against COVID-19. (Representative image: Reuters)

Health aggregators are expected to join India’s expanded vaccination drive which from May 1 will include everyone over the age of 18.

Players such as Medibuddy, Pharmeasy and 1mg are in talks with vaccine manufacturers to gain supplies of vaccines, which they will provide to apartment complexes, neighbourhood clinics and dispensaries, office campuses and small towns, The Economic Times has reported .

Moneycontrol could not independently verify the report.

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India is in the middle of a ferocious second wave, with daily reported infection topping 3 lakh for the second consecutive day on April 23.

While expanding the vaccination drive, the Centre has also allowed states to acquire 50 percent of their vaccine requirement and allowed private parties to vaccinate individuals.

The players are also in talks with the Centre-run CoWin platform to integrate systems and ensure that all vaccinations are counted, industry sources told the paper.

If these companies are “onboarded” into the country’s vaccination drive, they’ll bring with them resources in form of a huge network of doctors, clinics and healthcare workers beyond the current 7,000 government and 7,000 private centres offering vaccinations at present.

Prashant Tandon, founder of 1mg, said, “Vaccination needs to be a neighbourhood activity and since major hospitals are overburdened, network providers like us have a huge role to play.” He further said that customers can use their portal to book their vaccine appointment.

The company is also in talks with corporates and housing societies to set up vaccination camps.

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A government official told the paper that these companies are also asking the Centre to “open up integration of CoWin platform with their systems”.

Meena Ganesh, MD & CEO of Portea Medical, a home healthcare provider,  said they have set up a cold chain across 30 cities and have trained manpower to administer the vaccine. “The idea is to procure directly and set up camps in large corporates, factories and housing complexes,” she added.

Pharmeasy CEO Dharmil Sheth said, “More than million customers have locked in demand for vaccines with us. It is larger groups as well as corporates. We will be able to provide over 5 million customers in the next couple of months.”

The company plans to conduct vaccination camps, supply vaccines to nursing homes and doctors (first in 12 and later 25-30 cities) and connect customers with vaccination centres.

MediBuddy CEO Satish Kannan said its customers were demanding vaccines. He felt said vaccine shortage and supply may be an issue but note prices as market would take care of overpricing.

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