The Uttar Pradesh government has revised its bid document inviting worldwide tenders for the provide of 4 crore vaccines to accelerate the Covid vaccination drive in the state and broaden the response from suppliers for its worldwide tender for jabs.
In the amended bid document, the state well being division has halved the earnest cash deposit quantity and also announced key relaxations in the terms and situations. The relaxation would now let many worldwide vaccine companies, which includes Pfizer and Moderna, to participate in the tender method.
The state had, on May 7, floated a worldwide tender for the acquire of Covid-19 vaccines, in which it had fixed the earnest cash quantity at Rs 16 crore. It had also fixed particular terms and situations concerning temperature at which the vaccine had been to be transported and stored.
However, following the pre-bid meeting with representatives of vaccine companies on May 12, in which representatives of Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, Serum Institute, Zydus Cadila, Dr Reddy’s, which is manufacturing Sputnik, and Bharat Biotech had been present, the government felt the have to have to loosen up particular terms and situations of the worldwide tender in order to allow more organizations in participate in the method.
“The government has relaxed the condition in which vaccine storage was sought to be at 2-8 degree Celsius temperature. Now, even manufacturers of vaccines which can be stored at temperatures ranging from -20 to -80 degrees Celsius will be able to participate in the tender. This has cleared the way for companies such as Pfizer and Moderna to participate in the tendering.
“The companies will have to safely transport the vaccines to the government warehouses and will also have to make arrangements for their storage at -20 to -80 degrees Celsius,” stated a state government spokesperson, adding that organizations from neighboring nations, which includes China, will have to get the approval from the central government to join the worldwide tender method.