'Unaware of govt's efforts': Nitin Gadkari clarifies day after COVID-19 vaccine ramp-up comment

Union minister Nitin Gadkari on Wednesday said he was unaware that the Centre had already chalked out a plan to ramp up manufacturing. Gadkari added that he is glad the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is making ‘all efforts’ to ramp up its production. Gadkari’s clarification came a day after he, at the Swadeshi Jagaran Manch function on Tuesday, said more pharma companies should be allowed to make COVID-19 vaccines in the country during the pandemic to scale up production.

Yesterday while participating at the conference organised by Swadeshi Jagaran Manch, I had made a suggestion to ramp up vaccine production. I was unaware that before my speech Minister for Chemical & Fertilizers Shri @mansukhmandviya had explained government’s efforts to ramp up

— Nitin Gadkari (@nitin_gadkari) May 19, 2021

  “After the conference, he also informed me that, GoI is already facilitating vaccine manufacturing by 12 different plants/companies and rapid ramp-up of production is expected in near future as a result of these efforts,” the road transport and highways minister said in a series of tweets. Gadkari added that he was unaware that the chemical and fertiliser ministry has started these efforts before he had given suggestion on Tuesday. He added:

I was unaware that his ministry has started these efforts before I had given suggestion yesterday. I am glad and congratulate he and his team for this timely intervention in the right direction. I feel important to put this on record.

— Nitin Gadkari (@nitin_gadkari) May 19, 2021

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On Tuesday, Gadkari had said he would request Prime Minister Narendra Modi to bring a law for allowing more pharma companies to manufacture life-saving drugs by paying 10 percent royalty to the patent holder of the drug. “If the demand of vaccine is more than its supply then it creates a problem. So, instead of one company, 10 more companies should be allowed to make vaccines by paying 10 per cent royalty to the original patent holder of the vaccine,” he said. The Opposition had pounced on Gadkari’s remarks to slam the Narendra Modi government. Congress leader Jairam Ramesh tweeted:

But is his Boss listening? This is what Dr. Manmohan Singh had suggested on April 18th. https://t.co/iqgPgJJ6Y7

— Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) May 19, 2021

On 18 April, former prime minister Manmohan Singh in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the COVID-19 crisis suggested five measures to tackle the pandemic. In a letter to the prime minister, the veteran Congress leader stressed that ramping up vaccination is the key to battling the pandemic and said one “must not look at absolute numbers but the total percentage of population vaccinated”. Recently, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal wrote to the prime minister, saying the Centre should share the vaccine formula of the two manufacturers with other capable pharmaceutical companies to scale up production in the country. There are two vaccine makers in the country currently,  Bharat Biotech and Serum Institute of India, which are manufacturing Covaxin and Covishield, respectively. These two firms can be given royalty from the profit of other companies for the use of their original formulas, Kejriwal had said. Only three vaccines have so far been approved to be sold in India — Covaxin, Coveshield and Sputnik. Sputnik V has been approved to be imported from Russia by Dr Reddy’’s but is yet to be widely available in the country. With inputs from PTI