It is two years now after the Union health ministry headed by Dr Anbumani Ramadoss ordered the closure of three public sector vaccine manufacturing units. The units, BCG Vaccine Laboratory in Chennai, Pasteur Institute of India, Coonoor and Central Research Institute at Kasauli had a critical role in supplying life saving vaccines to the country’s immunization programme at cost prices. The anti-TB vaccine produced in the BCG Lab used to be supplied to the entire country for the national programme whereas CRI Kasauli was the only unit producing Japanese encephalitis vaccine other than China. And the Pasteur Institute has been making DTP and anti rabies vaccine for more than a century. The reported reason provided by the health ministry to order the closure of the three vaccine units was their non compliance of GMP norms set by WHO. This was not a convincing explanation to shut down the government owned vaccine units especially when they have been supplying these critical vaccines to country’s immunization programme. The government did not also make suitable arrangements to procure these vaccines at competitive prices from other sources before the closure. Many states are already reporting shortages of these vaccines in various government hospitals and medical centres. In fact, the private players in the vaccine business have been waiting for a shortage situation for vaccines. The closure of PSU units was thus well suited them.
After the closure of the vaccine units there has been a steady rise in the prices of most of the widely used vaccines in the country. And expenditure on universal immunization programme thus doubled after the government started depending on private players for procuring vaccines. The health ministry shortly after the closure of the vaccine units had claimed that it could negotiate with the private players and manage to procure vaccines at lesser prices. But that has never happened. A scrutiny of prices of vaccines procured by the government from the private players clearly shows that the rates for the year of 2009-10 were much higher than the rates in the previous years. In fact the private players used to offer the vaccines at competitive prices before the closure of the PSU units as per the information available from the health ministry itself. The Parliamentary standing committee on health and family welfare, headed by Amar Singh, has taken serious objection to the continuing delay on the part of the health ministry in resuming operations of the three closed PSU units .The committee is of the view that suspension of manufacturing licences of the three units should be revoked immediately so as to restart their production. Considering the emerging shortage situation for vaccine in the country the stand of the panel is quite significant. The government cannot afford to ignore a suggestion like this from a Parliamentary panel. It is quite mysterious that the health ministry just did not bother to undertake the modernization of the vaccine units during last two years when shortages of vaccines were being reported by state governments.