Amidst the shortage of vaccines across the country, Mumbai’s civic body, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has invited global tenders in order to purchase one crore doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to speed up the vaccination drive in the city.
According to sources, eight companies have responded to the tender. Out of eight potential suppliers, seven suppliers have shown interest in supplying Sputnik V and only one of them has shown interest in supplying Sputnik Lite. Moreover, one supplier has expressed interest in supplying the AstraZeneca Pfizer vaccine.
This development comes as the civic body had earlier on May 12 floated global tenders to buy vaccines for the coronavirus at INR 700 crores. Meanwhile, Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope also while commenting on the issue of global tenders to procure the vaccines told the media that the state government has got a response from few companies, including Pfizer, Sputnik and AstraZeneca.
On the other hand, in order to tackle the surge in coronavirus cases, several states like Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Uttar Pradesh, too have floated a global tender for jabs. However, other states like West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Assam and Punjab, are yet to take a call on floating global tender for vaccines.
Furthermore, the business relationship between suppliers who are willing to supply vaccines and companies that actually produce vaccines happen to be crucial as well. In addition, the administration has informed that it will ensure that the vaccine is delivered on time and smoothly.
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