The Standing Committee of Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC), on Thursday, approved a resolution to provide financial assistance of Rs 25 crore to Pimpri-headquartered Hindustan Antibiotics Limited (HAL) to manufacture the COVID-19 vaccine.
The unopposed agreement has cleared the decks to offer a major booster to the efforts of manufacturing the vaccine exclusively for the twin towns. The city is presently facing a shortage of vaccines and there is a huge gap between the demand and supply.
Numerous vaccination centres are forced to shut because of the paucity of vaccines while several citizens beyond the age of 45 are still stressed to get the vaccine. HAL, the oldest public segment drug manufacturer, has already sent a proposal to the Union government seeking endorsement for the manufacturing of the vaccine. Speaking to a
source, advocate Nitin Landge, Standing Committee president, said, “We have passed the proposal unanimously to provide financial assistance of Rs 25 crore to HAL. This will be a step ahead towards making the industrial town self-reliant when it comes to the production and supply of COVID vaccines,” he said.
“The company administration had submitted the proposal to us and also applied for a nod from the Union government. We are expecting to finish the rough plan within the next two weeks. If everything goes smoothly, we are expecting to begin the production from July end,” said Landge.
“We had discussed the issue with former chief minister Devendra fadnavis and Maval MP Shrirang Barne. Both of them independently spoke to Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan. It was learnt that the ministry was considering the proposal positively and will soon allow HAL to manufacture the vaccine,” said MLA Mahesh Landge, who is also Pimpri-Chinch was president of the ruling Bhartiya Jayanta Party (BJP).
“Currently, Serum Institute of India and Bharat Biotech are manufacturing Covishield and Covaxin, respectively, in India. A third vaccine, Sputnik V of Russia, is also rolling out in India. Any of these vaccines can be manufactured from the HAL unit,” he added.
“The company has well-trained manpower and other resources. It has a good production capacity. However, we have told HAL that we will provide the money but it should sign an agreement that vaccine manufactured will be first given to PCMC for its residents,” he stated.
“It is true that we have sought permission from the Central government to manufacture the COVID-19 vaccine. We have made preliminary changes and once the permission is given, we can install the required machinery for manufacturing the vaccine,” told an HAL official.