Azad hints at nexus between private-public vaccine units

Union minister for health and family welfare Ghulam Nabi Azad has hinted at a nexus between private and state-owned vaccine companies that had seen the production capacity of state-owned units decline gradually and said the matter needed to be investigated.

Azad was replying to a question and related supplementaries during question hour. Azad said that surprisingly till recently the production of the three government units was 80 per cent which has now come down to 10 per cent.

He said it said there was something wrong and there appeared to be a nexus between government and private sector units. He said that he could not say whether it was done to benefit the private units but a possibility existed and it needed to be probed in-depth by an external agency to bring out the truth. He said he would be back with the findings as soon as the inquiry was complete.

Azad said prices of vaccines produced in private units were rising and manufacturing three state-owned vaccine institutes- the Central Research Inistitute (Kasauli), the Pasteur Insititute of India in Coonoor (Tamil Nadu) and BCG Vaccine Laboratory in Chennai had been suspended following non-compliance of Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) as per requirements of Schedule M of Drugs and Cosmetics Rules 1945, he added. The CRI (Kasauli) was established in 1905, the PII (Coonoor) in 1907 and the Chennai nit in 1948.

Azad said he had received hundreds of complaints about hospital equipment remaining dysfunctional for long. He said the he had detailed discussions with a leading electronics firm and the government was now in the process of working out a system whereby such machines could be put to use in government hospitals to offer services at a cost-effective price.

Azad said that the suspension of the licenses of the three units had led to a shortage of vaccines affecting the universal immunisation programme and added that the government had decided to revive the three units.

He said the licenses of the units could be revived to resume production after the units complied with GMP requirements.