Pfizer, Moderna jabs may not be part of free drive | Economic Times

Pfizer and Moderna Covid-19 vaccines are unlikely to be included in India’s public free immunisation drive for all adults above 18 years of age, but the government will facilitate procurement of the two vaccines, people aware of the matter said.The high cost of the two vaccines is likely to act as a deterrent for bulk procurement and inclusion in the public immunisation drive, they said. The Centre is in advance talks with both the companies for their Covid-19 vaccines and had even indicated that Pfizer vaccine could be available for India as early as July. “We will facilitate the procurement since both the companies have always maintained that they deal with sovereign governments only. But these vaccines would be available largely in the private hospitals,” said a central government official who did not wish to be identified.Behind this strategy is the Centre’s plan to scale up vaccination from this month to avoid a third wave. “The target is ambitious as we want to cover at least 40% of the adult population with at least one dose,” the official said. “This would mean large scale procurement of vaccines. If we want to increase the reach, more vaccines would be required and investing in expensive vaccines like Pfizer and Moderna would not be logical.” At the same time, the government hopes that availability of these highly effective vaccines would take the load off the public immunisation drive as beneficiaries who can afford them would be willing to get them at private hospitals.Another big factor working against inclusion of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines in the public immunisation drive is the cold chain requirement as both the vaccines need temperatures below zero. This can be maintained only in big hospitals in state hospitals or large metros. “This restricts our choice of cities considerably,” the official said. “It would require investment in cold chain... We would rather invest in procuring more vaccines for the masses.” The vaccine bill of India is likely to increase beyond Rs 34,000 crore. Back of the envelope calculation now puts it at over Rs 50,000 crore. As per health ministry’s calculations, India has to cover 95 crore population. “This would mean a requirement of 195 cr doses including wastage,” the official said. The health ministry has asked all state governments to prioritise covering healthcare workers and frontline workers with second doses. So far, 82% of healthcare workers have got their first dose but the second dose coverage is 56%. Eighteen states and UTs have coverage below the national average. These include Punjab, Maharashtra, Haryana, Tamil Nadu, Delhi and Assam.