Covid vax: Telangana hopes dim on global tenders

HYDERABAD: The hopes of the Telangana state government to procure Covid-19 vaccines through global tenders took a hit after the manufacturers informed a few states such as Delhi and Punjab that they would not supply vaccines directly to the states but would deal with the Centre.

These states had invited global tenders much before the TS government did.
It may be mentioned that the state government on May 19 invited global tenders to procure one crore vaccines. As many as nine states had done so including Andhra Pradesh so far but none received a positive response from manufacturers.

The TS government had set a June 4 deadline for manufacturers for submission of bids to supply vaccines. Official sources said there was no response from manufacturers so far.

While the state government was still hopeful of getting a positive response from the manufacturers, the communication sent by them to Delhi and Punjab over the past two days came as a shocker.

As per state government tender conditions, the bidders are invited to attend a pre-bid meeting on May 26 via Google meet. Bidders can quote their offers to supply the vaccine in part too, provided that monthly supply shall not be less than 15 lakh doses. A total supply of one crore doses shall be completed within six months of issuance of Letter of Intent (LoI).

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday said the vaccine manufacturers Pfizer and Moderna had communicated to them that they would not sell vaccines to states, but will deal only with the government of India. Punjab government too on Sunday announced that Moderna turned down their request for vaccines saying it did not supply directly to states.

The task force on Covid vaccines headed by IT minister K.T. Rama Rao is closely watching the developments in these states before taking a decision on revising tender guidelines to attract manufacturers and also to negotiate with global manufacturers directly.