Serum Institute to start free COVID vaccine supply to government, other manufacturers await order

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With new variants of Covid-19 emerging in many countries and vaccines and booster doses again gaining mindshare, the government has placed an order on Serum Institute of India (SII) for 80 lakh doses of the Covishield vaccine, which the company will be supplied for free.

“The government has informed the Serum Institute that it is ready to receive 80 lakh doses of COVID vaccine. Currently, it is a dynamic situation, we will assess the situation of booster uptake and then decide on the future course,” a Union health ministry official told Moneycontrol, adding that the supply of the vaccine, intended for a host of consignees, will start soon. The official asked not to be identified.

Prakash Kumar Singh, SII’s director of government and regulatory affairs, on December 29 wrote to Union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan offering 2 crore free doses of the vaccine. SII has so far supplied over 170 crore doses of Covishield to the government to be used in the national Covid-19 immunisation programme.

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When asked why SII was offering so many doses of vaccine for free, the health ministry official said that it was on the request made from top officials of the ministry.

The health ministry has got requests from at least five states—Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, West Bengal and Telangana—seeking additional doses of Covishield vaccines for precautionary doses.

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SII currently has over 2.5 crore doses of vaccine in its stockpile, which has shelf life of one year and rather than let it go waste, the company would prefer to use if for free in the larger public interest.

Other manufacturers awaiting govt orders

While the latest order will reduce SII’s stock, other vaccine makers are awaiting procurement orders from the government.

However, in their case, they want the government to buy their available stock of vaccine and not supply for free.

For instance, Biological E has an inventory of nearly 20 crore doses of vaccine. According to a top official, the company has supplied over 9.8 crore doses of Corbevax vaccines to the government and was ready to supply over 1.50 crore more doses as and when needed.

Covishield has been the most used COVID vaccine in the in the country but the government has allowed consumers to use other vaccines as booster dose.

“A heterologous vaccine like Corbevax can help states to manage inventory since they don’t need to worry which vaccine was given first,” Laxminarayan Neti, COO, Biological E, told Moneycontrol.

Bharat Biotech officials have also said that an inventory of over 5 crore Covaxin shots is readily available. “We haven’t received any call for vaccine supply from the government. As and when they do, we can supply additional doses,” a company official said, requesting anonymity.

Cautious approach on vaccine procurement

When asked on how the government views the vaccine inventory situation, a senior health ministry official told Moneycontrol that a situation-based cautious approach was being adopted for procurement.

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“If the government procures the vaccines and it won’t be utilised, then it is a loss of people’s money. We have procured some doses of Covishield and this would be supplied to the states in need,” the official added.

Meanwhile, of the total COVID vaccine given in the country in the last 10 days of December, the government’s Cowin portal showed, 71 percent were the country.

At a meeting to review India's Covid-19 situation amid a rise in infections abroad, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had directed officials to increase the coverage of booster doses.