Chandigarh
A company in Malta has expressed interest to supply up to 60 million doses of the Russian vaccine Sputnik V to Haryana directly, the state government said on Saturday. Pharma Regulatory Services Ltd, whose headquarters is in the European nation, has given an “expression of interest’ but did not bid for a contract yet, the state government said in a statement, as per NDTV.
The foreign company offered to sell the vaccine at ₹ 1,120 per dose. “As per the offer made by the firm, the per dose cost of the vaccine will be nearly ₹1,120. The firm has further given a timeline of 30 days to supply the first batch of 5 lakh doses, followed by 1 million doses every 20 days till supply is completed against a letter of credit issued in their name,” the state government said in the statement.
The Haryana Medical Services Corporation Ltd launched a global tender on May 26 inviting pharma firms to supply vaccines directly. The tender closed on Friday after no bid was received. The Maltese firm also did not meet the deadline in sending its expression of interest.
However, the state government is going through the expression of interest “carefully”, even though the offer came after the tender ended, to check whether it meets the conditions mentioned in the tender, Haryana additional chief secretary of health Rajeev Arora said, adding, the aim is to ensure the state has a smooth supply of vaccines.
“Although no bid was received in the tender but an international pharma company with its headquarters in Malta namely Pharma Regulatory Services Limited has given an expression of Interest to HMSCL to provide up to 60 million doses of Sputnik V vaccine manufactured by Gamaleya Institute and Russian Direct Investment.”