Mumbai has received three bids for the supply of Russia’s Sputnik V Covid vaccine, the government sources informed on Monday. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation had placed the tenders for one crore doses on May 11. These were issued under India’s latest nationwide Covid-19 inoculation policy, allowing state governments to procure Covid vaccine doses directly from producers.
Sources told that the deadline for submission of bids ends tomorrow. Of the three received till now, one was made directly by the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) and the other two by its independent representatives. Sources also told that the legal, technical and financial aspects of the bids will be decided in two weeks, in consultation with the Maharashtra government after the bids close tomorrow.
As per the reports, the RDIF are willing to transfer one crore Covid vaccine doses in 60 days to BMC. The proposed import of Sputnik V, if it happens, will be independent of the manufacture of the vaccine which is being handled in India by Hyderabad-based Dr Reddy’s.
Sputnik V was developed by the Moscow-based Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology and was registered on August 11, 2020, by the Russian Ministry of Health. It is cleared for use in India but it yet to get clearance from the World Health Organization.
Mumbai’s success in receiving bids for Covid vaccine supply comes amid instances where Punjab and Delhi have revealed that the private manufacturers they approached had refused them, opting to deal only with the Central government.
In a joint statement on Monday, the Russian Direct Investment Fund and the pharmaceutical firm Panacea Biotec said that the full scale production of Sputnik V has been launched in India this summer