Govt panel to discuss procurement, logistics, COVID-19 vaccine selection on August 12

The Union Health Ministry announced that an expert committee that is set up by the centre and is headed by NITI Aayog Member VK Paul will meet on August 12, 2020, to discuss the logistics and ethical aspects of administering COVID-19 vaccine.

The Ministry further informed that the committee on COVID-19 vaccine administration will engage with all the stakeholders including vaccine manufacturers and state governments as well as its term of reference including selecting suitable vaccines, their delivery, procurement, and groups to administer them.

Even though the Health Ministry has refused to comment on Russia’s claim of developing the world’s first COVID-19 vaccine, the meeting of the expert committee will certainly chalk out the strategies for vaccine administration to speed up the process in India.

#IndiaFightsCorona

The Expert Committee on Vaccine Administration under the chairmanship of Dr V K Paul, @NITIAayog will meet on 12th August to consider logistics & ethical aspects of procurement & administration of #COVID19 vaccine.@PMOIndia @drharshvardhan @AshwiniKChoubey

— Ministry of Health (@MoHFW_INDIA) August 11, 2020

What will be the objective of the meeting?

Rajesh Bhushan, Health Ministry Secretary informed that the expert committee will look into the aspects related to logistics like inventory and cold chain, issues of equity, and arrangement of resources for procuring the COVID-19 vaccine.

The expert committee group will continue its engagement with all the vaccine manufacturers and state governments in India.

On the question if the government is looking at risk-funding for the vaccine manufacturers and if it has estimated the number of doses required at least in the first 6 months, Mr. Bhushan responded that these issues have been engaging the attention of the Health Ministry for quite some time now.

Three different vaccine candidates in India:

During the press briefing, Rajesh Bhushan, Health Ministry Secretary informed that phase 1 and phase 2 human clinical trials of two of the vaccine candidates, indigenously developed by Bharat Biotech, in collaboration with ICMR-Indian Council of Medical Research, and Zydus Cadila Ltd., has been going on.

The Serum Institute of India has also been permitted for conducting the Phase 2 and 3 human clinical trials of the third vaccine candidate, developed by Oxford University. The Institute has already partnered with AstraZeneca for manufacturing it.

The Serum Institute also announced that it has entered into a partnership with International Vaccine Alliance Gavi and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to speed up the manufacturing and delivery of COVID-19 vaccines up to 100 million doses for India as well as other low and middle-income countries.