Tribune News Service

New Delhi, May 2

RSS affiliate Swadeshi Jagran Manch (SJM) today urged the Narendra Modi government to provide regulatory clearance for local production of Russian vaccine Sputnik V and a ceiling on prices of Covid-19 medicines and vaccines.

“The general public is reeling under the corporate greed, which needs to be curbed at any cost,” the SJM said.

“There is an urgent need to invoke measures like ceiling of the prices of medicines. The vaccine prices for state government procurement and private hospitals are exorbitant and affect the vaccination drive. Unreasonable profit for medicines and vaccines are unjustifiable, especially during a pandemic,” said national co-convener Ashwani Mahajan.

Suggesting that introduction of competition was the best way to lower prices, Mahajan said patent protection was the major barrier to the generic production of these medicines and asked the BJP government to “facilitate technology transfer of vaccines, including trade secrets, to all potential manufacturers to scale up the production of Covaxin and Covishield”. “The country needs nearly 195 crore doses to cover at least 70 per cent of the population. This cannot be fulfilled by two companies alone. There is an urgent need to bring more manufactures to start production,” he said.