Public vs Private: India in a vaccine Catch-22

With a potential budget of $1.44 billion, the health ministry can have any vaccine producer it desires. Does this mean that PSUs lose out?

The vaccine producing PSUs have either become GMP-compliant or will this year; they're worthy contenders for the national vaccination programme

The executives from certain vaccine producing PSUs are nervous because another PSU (despite GMP) isn't getting health ministry orders

While the Indian retail market for vaccines is small, the national programme is a significantly larger buyer for them

Why wouldn’t the ministry want to buy from PSUs? There's more to the story

The Indian health ministry has maintained its position for the last 10 years. At least formally, with the Supreme Court, the Parliament and the media. It wants to upgrade the three public vaccine manufacturers to supply vaccines of impeccable quality at a low price. Now that the government companies have risen from the ashes as competent vaccine producers, the health ministry needs to make a choice. Are they still a worthy contender for the now Rs 9,451-crore ($1.44 billion) national vaccination programme?

The three public sector undertakings (PSUs)—Central Research Institute (CRI), Kasauli, BCG Vaccine Laboratory (BCGVL), Chennai and Pasteur Institute of India (PII), Coonoor—were shut down in January 2008.

AUTHOR

Ruhi Kandhari

Ruhi writes on the impact of healthcare policies, trends in the healthcare sector and developments on the implementation of Electronic Health Records in India. She has an M. Sc. in Development Studies from the London School of Economics.

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