Vaccine vacuum gives birth to dubious dealers

Desperate attempts by state governments to attract suppliers for Covid-19 vaccines have led to a few unauthorised dealers and distributors placing bids with a promise of supplying vaccines of companies like Pfizer, AstraZeneca and Gamaleya Research Institute.Distributors in countries such as the Czech Republic, UK and the UAE have been promising state governments delivery of Covid-19 vaccines, even as vaccine companies deny having authorised any such distributors to deal on their behalf with Indian authorities.The Mumbai municipal corporation this week announced that it received bids from eight companies who have promised to deliver up to 1 crore doses. One of them has assured to deliver Pfizer/AstraZeneca vaccines while the remaining seven have bid to supply Gamaleya’s Sputnik V vaccine.83017758A company named Ozone Energy from the Czech Republic is one of the bidders. ET could not verify the credentials of any of these eight bidders. Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation commissioner Iqbal Chahal told ET earlier this week that the Czech company had offered to supply 10 million doses of Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines.“We cannot stop anyone from participating in a tender. However, we will carry out all due diligence before making payments and procuring doses from these companies,” he had said.“As per the BMC tender, the bidders can be manufacturers, distributors or dealers. Some facilitating companies have asked for deviation which will be allowed,” BMC additional commissioner P Velrasu told ET. "We will check the authorisation or the chain of link between the manufacturers and the bidders. If the proper link and authenticity is established, then only MCGM (Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai) will proceed to take the next step,” he said.Pfizer said it has not authorised any company to distribute the vaccine on its behalf or participate in global tenders. “Neither Pfizer Inc nor any of its affiliates globally, including in India, have authorized anyone to import/market/distribute the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine. We continue to have ongoing discussions with the government of India towards making our vaccine available for use nationally,” a Pfizer spokesperson told ET.An executive from Serum Institute of India also said it has not authorised anyone to participate in these tenders.“There have been similar incidents reported in other parts of the world where such distributors have approached governments with the promise of delivering vaccines, but these are unauthorised and they might be selling counterfeit vaccines,” the executive, who did not wish to be named, told ET.A spokesperson for RDIF, said it has authorised only Dr Reddy’s to distribute the vaccine.

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