Hospitals try to sell unsold vax stocks at discount, no takers

Hospitals try to sell unsold vax stocks at discount, no takers

Sumitra.Debroy@timesgroup.com

Mumbai:09.11.2021

Stuck with unsold Covid vaccine doses worth crores, private hospitals have started offering their stocks at 10-30% discounted rates to bulk purchasers. Many have even approached the manufacturers hoping to return unsold inventory.

Far from the situation in May-June when private players faced a crisis of shortage, they were sitting on more than 47lakh doses in October last week. Hospitals in Mumbai may have more than 85% of the unsold doses. Vaccinations in the city’s private sector nosedived in October with less than 3lakh paid jabs administered.

Sanjeevani Hospital in Malad has 7,000 doses of Covishield worth Rs 44lakh and hardly any takers. “I’ve approached both the manufacturer and BMC, but nobody is willing to take the vaccines,” said Dr Sunil Agarwal, the hospital’s director. “We are willing to liquidate it at a discount of 30%...it is better than doses going to waste altogether,” he said. The hospital’s daily footfall for vaccination has dropped to 20-25 people, far below the crowd of 1,000 they had previously.

In a similar dilemma is Oscar Hospital in the western suburbs with around 25,000 doses. Dr Nitin Pawar said, “We have all threes-—Covishield, Covaxin and Sputnik, but hardly any people are coming forward,” Dr Pawar said. Oscar, like many others, is pinning hopes on the government approving a booster shot. “The other way we may see a surge in demand is if the interval between doses is reduced,” he said. The corporation had said more than 22 lakh people would be eligible for vaccination immediately if the 84-day interval is shortened.

Dr Prince Surana, CEO of Surana Group of Hospitals said many hospitals are trying to sell stocks at discounts, but few have found buyers. CoWin allows private hospitals to transfer doses to each other. “That option is used mainly when someone is in urgent need of 100-200 doses. If anybody wants more doses, they usually place orders directly with manufacturers,” he said. Another hospital head said he spoke to the Serum Institute of India to ask them to take some doses back.

“They turned it down saying they cannot be sure how the vaccines were stored,” he said. The extension of expiry period of Covaxin from 6 month to 12 months has brought some relief though, he said. A state official said private hospitals have offered vaccines to the government. “But we cannot buy from private sector when there is abundant supply from the Centre,” the official said. Interestingly, no hospital has slashed rates despite the oversupply.