he global e-tender floated by Odisha government for procurement of 3.8 crore doses of COVID-19 vaccines has elicited a response with a couple of bids on the concluding day of the closure of the bidding deadline.
Odisha was among the first few States to contemplate procuring vaccines from the international market through global tenders.
Confirming the receipt of online bidding applications, the Additional Chief Secretary (Health) Pradipta Mohapatra said “The applications are being processed and evaluated”.
The global tender the deadline was to end on 28 May had earlier been extended by seven days because of non-participation vaccine manufacturing companies.
Evidently unable to find suitable bidders for its global tenders to procure COVID-19 vaccines from leading manufacturers in the world, the Odisha government had earlier on 1 June had sought the Centre’s statutory clearance for the purpose as demanded by the companies.
A day later, Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik wrote to all the chief ministers in the country, urging them to build a consensus over procurement of the COVID vaccines by the Centre for distribution among the states.
“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 State-run Odisha State Medical Corporation Ltd (OSMCL)’ s notification dated 1 June maintained.