Global Tender For COVID-19 Vaccine Procurement By Odisha To Open Today; Details Here

Bhubaneswar: The global tender floated by the Odisha government to procure COVID-19 vaccines will be open on Friday.

According to sources, the technical bid will be opened first at 11 am followed by the financial bid. By 5 pm, it will be clear which company will supply the vaccine to the state.

The bid document and all information relating to the bidding process are available on the websites: www.osmcl.nic.in and https://tendersodisha.gov.in (under “Latest Active Tender”).

Notably, the government had floated a global tender for procurement of 3.80 crore of vaccine doses to inoculate its entire population on May 14.

Odisha State Medical Corporation Ltd (OSMCL) invited bids from the world’s leading vaccine manufacturers and offered advance payment of 30 per cent of the value of each purchase order. It expects 75 lakh doses in 30 days of the purchase order, 2.25 crore doses within 60 days, 3.75 crore doses by 90 days and 3.8 crore doses by 120 days.

Manufacturers of vaccines in India and producers or their authorised importer in the case of vaccines manufactured in foreign countries can take part in the process.

AMENDMENTS

To facilitate the participation of manufacturers of vaccines to be stored in supercool temperature, the storage condition, however, was later revised up to minus 20 degree Celsius, subject to the condition that the vaccines will remain stable and maintain their potency at 2 degree Celsius to 8 degree Celsius for at least 12 hours.

“Relaxation has been approved in the EMD, bid security and liquidated damages to attract more vaccine manufacturers within the country and abroad,” Chief Secretary S C Mohapatra said after the pre-bidding meeting on May 19.

It was previously stipulated that 50 per cent of the total tender quantity shall be allocated to the L1 bidder and the balance 50 per cent to be split among L2, L3, L4 and so on at negotiated rates. The revised terms and conditions, however, allows a potential bidder to apply for any quantity.

Apart from this, the payment of performance security has been completely waived off to enable larger participation.

The OSMCL will issue separate purchase orders for each of the 4 phases and successive purchase orders will be issued after the execution of the previous one.

As per the revised vaccination policy, the population within the age group of 18-44 years would be provided with free vaccines at the cost of the state exchequer.