Vaccines Procurement: Odisha’s Global Tender Receives 2 Bids

Bhubaneswar: The global e-tender floated by the Odisha State Medical Corporation Ltd (OSMCL) for procurement of vaccines received two bids on Friday.

“They are under evaluation,” informed Additional Chief Secretary (Health) Pradipta Mohapatra.

Interestingly, the state government had extended the bid deadline on May 28 following requests from many prospective vendors and cyclone Yaas. It had also revised certain terms and conditions in the global tender document for procurement of 3.80 crore of vaccine doses twice to ensure better participation.

“Manufacturers or their importers approved by USFDA (the United States Food and Drug Administration), EMA (the European Medicines Agency), MHRA (Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency, UK) or PMDA (Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency, Japan) or listed by WHO (World Health Organization) for emergency use are eligible to bid for the global tender or listed by the World Health Organisation (WHO) for emergency use now eligible to bid,” the OSMCL notification issued on June 1 said.

The storage condition was earlier revised up to minus 20 degree Celsius, to facilitate the participation of manufacturers of vaccines to be stored in supercool temperature.

The payment of performance security was completely waived off.

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The global tender was floated on May 14.

In view of the challenges faced by the states, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had written to his counterparts for a consensus on centralised procurement of vaccines.

Citing limited response to the global tender, Health Minister Naba Das had also requested Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan to act immediately on statutory clearances for global vaccine manufacturers that are interested in central procurement and not participating in bids due to indemnity related issues.