The Parliamentary panel on health and an expert panel headed by Javed Chaudhary have criticised the Union health ministry for not taking effective measures to contain the vaccine prices in the country which have shot up after the closure of three PSU vaccine units by the ministry in early 2008.

A four-member committee chaired by Javed Chaudhary, former secretary in the union health ministry, in its interim report to the ministry in February 5, 2010, pointed out that between the years 2007-08 and 2009-10, the prices of vaccines purchased per vial have increased by 30 per cent in 2008-09 and by 59 per cent in 2009-10 on a year-on-year basis over the prices of 2007-08 for BCG. The price of DPT vaccine per vial reported an increase between 25 to 63 per cent for DPT for the same time periods.

The department-related parliamentary committee on ministry of health and family welfare, quoting the expert committee report, has expressed its apprehension that the prices of vaccines purchased from the private sector as against the public sector manufacturing units for UIP would have increased further over that of the 2009-10 figures for 2010-11, though the quantum of vaccines procured for the current financial year is not clear yet.

The Javed Chaudhary committee was appointed by the ministry of health to determine the reasons for the suspension of the manufacturing license of the three vaccine producing units, the Central Research Institute (CRI), Kasauli, the Pasteur Institute of India (PII), Coonoor and the BCG Vaccine Laboratory (BCGVL), Chennai, and to draw a road-map for their revival.

The Parliamentary panel, in an earlier report submitted to the Rajya Sabha, has detailed the range of price increase for BCG, DPT, DT and TT vaccines, for which the prices were stable between 2004-05 and 2007-08.

The panel reports that, in the year 2008-09, and especially in 2009-10, the prices of vaccines have nearly doubled with the price of BCG rising from Rs 13 per vial of 10 doses in 2007-08 to Rs 17.50 in 2008-09 and to Rs 27.85 in 2009-10. Similarly, in the case of DPT vaccine which was earlier procured from the other public and private sector units at the rate of Rs 13.50 per vial of 10 doses, the price was at Rs 13.40 for the quantities procured from Indian Immunological Limited (IIL), Rs 14.37 from Serum Institute of India (SII), Pune and Rs 16.88 from Biological E. (BE) Ltd, Hyderabad during 2008-09. However, the price per vial of 10 doses for DPT rose to Rs 23.59 for supplies procured from IIL and BE, and Rs 23.49 from Shanta Biotech in 2009-10.

Similarly, the price of the DT vaccine rose from Rs 9.14 per vial of 10 doses in 2007-08 to Rs 12 (IIL) and Rs 13.85 (BE) for the quantities procured for the year 2008-09. For TT vaccine, the price per vial of 10 doses was Rs 6.20 in 2007-08 which rose to Rs 8.40 (IIL) and Rs 11.85 (BE) for the quantities procured in 2008-09 which again shot up to Rs 17.69 for the quantities procured from IIL, BE and SII in 2009-10.

The panel also slammed the ministry for providing evasive reply to its query on measures taken to curb the price hike. Agreeing with the assessment of the Choudhary committee that by closing down the existing public sector vaccine production units in advance, the country would be exposing itself to vaccine insecurity for five years or possibly, even a much longer period, the panel asked the health ministry to act promptly to revamp the three units.