'Prices in India are higher than US': Petition in Supreme Court assailing Centre's policy to allocate 25% jabs to private hospitals

Petitioners say policy would render the present campaign 'incomplete, inequitable, inefficient and opaque' creating a wide chasm between the rich and the poor

The petitioners, seeking a directive to the Centre to take over 100 per cent procurement of the vaccines, have raised contentions through their advocate Resmitha R. Chandran: File picture

R. Balaji   |   TT  |  New Delhi   |  23.06.21: Two citizens on Tuesday moved the Supreme Court assailing the Centre’s policy to allocate 25 per cent vaccines out of the total procurement to private hospitals and said, if not withdrawn, this would render the present vaccination campaign “incomplete, inequitable, inefficient and opaque” and create a wide chasm between the rich and the poor.

The joint petition filed by John Brittas, Rajya Sabha MP and journalist from Kerala who was media adviser to chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan in his first term when the state’s Covid management had made headlines worldwide, and R. Ramakumar, professor at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, cited extensive data and submitted that vaccine prices in the country are higher than even in the US.

The petition, in the form of an intervention application in the ongoing suo motu monitoring of the Covid situation by the top court, also raised questions about the government’s ostensible objective of vaccinating the entire country’s population by December 31, 2021, pointing out that only 3.5 per cent had been fully immunised according to the data in mid-June.

In a stinging rebuke on June 2, the apex court had described as “prima facie arbitrary and irrational” the Centre’s policy of limiting free Covid vaccination only to those aged 45 and above. Subsequently, on June 8, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a change in the policy. Under the new policy, the Centre will procure 75 per cent of the vaccines for free immunisation of all adults at government centres while the remaining 25 per cent has been set aside for private hospitals for paid doses.

The petitioners, seeking a directive to the Centre to take over 100 per cent procurement of the vaccines, have raised the following contentions through their advocate Resmitha R. Chandran:

Reservation for rich

Selling 25 per cent of the total monthly production of vaccines to the private sector will in effect create reservation for the rich and urban population because, according to the 2011 Indian Census Data and National Household Surveys (DHS/NFHS 2005-06 and UNICEF CES 2009), the private sector’s contribution to overall vaccination coverage has been only 4.7 per cent for tuberculosis (Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG)), 3.5 per cent for measles, 2.3 per cent for diphtheria-pertussis-tetanus (DPT3) and 7.6 per cent for polio (OPV3).

Also, the private sector’s role has been limited primarily to the high-income states.

Therefore, the opportunity to the vaccine manufacturers to sell 25 per cent of the total monthly production of vaccines to private sector hospitals will, in effect, result in a reservation of doses for the rich and urban population, and is perverse in design. This is in gross violation of the principles of social and economic justice and equality of status and opportunity embedded in the Constitution of India.

Under-utilisation

According to the health ministry’s data on June 4, the Centre provided 1.29 crore doses to private hospitals in May but only 22 lakh doses or 17.05 per cent were used.

“High predatory prices at private hospitals in comparison to government-run hospitals and vaccine hesitancy will continue to cause low vaccination at private healthcare institutes. Until the last person in the country is vaccinated, there is a continuing risk of the coronavirus, with all possible mutations, looming upon each person of this country like the sword of Damocles and violating the most important fundamental right to life guaranteed by the Constitution of India,” the petition said.

Price variation

The petition said the Centre had issued an Office Memorandum dated June 6 fixing the price caps at Rs 1200 + 60 (GST) + 150 (service taxes) for Covaxin; Rs 600 + 30 (GST) + 150 (service taxes) for Covishield; and Rs 948 + 47 (GST) + 150 (service taxes) for Sputnik V.

The memorandum said the price of vaccine doses can be modified in future if the manufacturer declares a changed price.

“Therefore a person availing two doses has to pay Rs 2,820 for Covaxin, Rs 1,560 if he avails Covishield and Rs 2,290 for Sputnik. This is in clear disadvantage to the people of India and to the excessive advantage for the vaccine manufacturers to create excessive profits,” the petition said.

A vaccine developed in India by Indian scientists and sponsored by the government and manufactured by an Indian company is now more expensive than most of the American vaccines, the petition said.

Covid-19 being a pandemic and a national disaster, the Government of India can regulate the pricing and availability of the vaccines under Sections 92 & 100 of the Patents Act and Section 2 of the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897, read with Section 188 of Indian Penal Code, the petition said.

Year-end goal

The petitioner expressed scepticism over the Centre’s stated objective of vaccinating 100 crore persons above the age of 18 years, requiring about 200 crore doses, by December 2021.

 “Even though the Government has expressed its intention to vaccinate the entire population with two doses by December 2021... the guidelines of the Press Information Bureau dated 14/06/2021 reveals that as on that date there are only 4.91 crores of people in the country who have received both the doses of vaccine.

“With hardly 6.5 months remaining to reach the targeted deadline of 31st December, 2021, only 3.51% of the population got both doses of vaccines and the revised guidelines do not speak about any action plan to expedite the process,” the petitioners contended.

It was pointed out that the revised guidelines do not speak about vaccines for children and the preparedness of the government in the event of a third wave of Covid-19.

 According to the petitioners, unless the Centre takes over 100 per cent procurement and makes doses available to all through private and public hospitals through a proper regulatory authority under the top court’s monitoring, the Covid vaccination policy would “continue to remain incomplete, inequitable, inefficient and opaque”.

“Therefore the immediate intervention of this Hon’ble Court is inevitable in making the vaccines accessible & available for all the people in India through a transparent procedure and thereby to enhance the trust of the people in their safety in the system,” the petition said.