Dr. Harsh Vardhan avargal, Minister for Health and Family Welfare, Government of India , Vanakkam!

To, ​13.05.2021

Dr. Harsh Vardhan avargal,
Minister for Health and Family Welfare,
Government of India

,
Vanakkam!

Hope this letter finds you well.
I am writing to you today to urge you to take all steps to utilise the three vaccine manufacturing centres in Tamil Nadu – King’s Institute at Chennai, Integrated Vaccine Complex by HLL Biotech at Chengalpattu, and Pasteur Institute at Conoor to manufacture the COVISHIELD and COVAXIN vaccines. All these three centres have the necessary machinery and infrastructure to manufacture the vaccines in large scale.

As you are aware, Integrated Vaccine Complex (IVC) at Chengalpattu has been lying idle for almost a decade, after being established in 2012 at an estimated cost of Rs. 594 crore and has sanctioned staff strength of 408, of which nearly 251 posts are vacant. The Pasteur Institute of Conoor is one of the oldest and pioneer Institutes of India in the manufacture of vaccines.

I made the suggestion to the ld. Additional Solicitor General appearing for the Central Government before the Hon’ble Madras High Court in the suo moto Writ Petition on 26.04.2021 that the Central Government can make use of these facilities to manufacture these two vaccines and it was recorded by the Hon’ble Court in its order. Similarly, I had made an appeal to you over Twitter on 1.5.2021 and 11.5.2021 to consider the same. The ld. ASG informed the Madras High Court on 10.05.2021 that these centres lack the technical know-how to manufacture the two vaccines. The Centre further informed the Court that the last two times tenders were called, no one had come forward with a bid. This appears to be a spurious stand.

There are two ways to go about this. One is to permit the two companies which have the IP to manufacture the vaccines namely Serum Institute of India and Bharat Biotech to utilise these facilities on payment of charges to ramp up production. Since these two companies already have the license /patent, they can well begin production.

Secondly, section 92 of the Patents Act, 1970 permits the Central Government to compulsorily license a drug during a “national emergency”. This pandemic, the worst health crisis that independent India has witnessed, certainly falls under the category of a national pandemic. The Hon’ble Supreme Court of India in a catena of cases, including the case of Novartis v. Union of India, has stressed the need for life saving drugs to be made available to the people at affordable rates. Therefore, it is possible for the Central Government to utilise the power under section 92, compulsorily license the drug and permit these three vaccination centres to be used.

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It is now certain that inoculation of the population is key to fighting the pandemic. Therefore, I request you to kindly accord your immediate attention to this letter and take steps to utilise the three vaccine centres in Tamil Nadu for production of Covishied/ Covaxin and oblige.

Thanking You,
With Warm Regards,

(P. WILSON