This is an archive article published on May 22, 2021
Hindustan Antibiotics seeks permission to produce Covid vaccine, MP Barne writes to Centre
Sena MP Barne said he has already written a letter to Union Chemical and Fertiliser Minister D V Sadananda Gowda and Union Health Minister Harsh Vandhan, urging them to given permission to HA to manufacture a Covid-19 vaccine and Remdesivir injections.
Hindustan Antibiotics Ltd, Pimpri, an ailing public sector unit, has sought permission from the central government to produce a Covid-19 vaccine. While the PSU is awaiting a response from the government, Shiv Sena leader and Maval MP Shrirang Barne said HA is likely to get a green signal for manufacturing the vaccine as well as Remdesivir by July-August.
“It is true that we have sought permission from the central government to manufacture a Covid-19 vaccine,” a spokesperson for HA told The Indian Express on Saturday.
As for which vaccine would be produced at HA, the government will take a decision in this regard, said the spokesperson. Currently, Serum Institute of India and Bharat Biotech are manufacturing Covid-19 vaccines in India.
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The HA spokesperson said the company currently manufactures dry powder injectables. “We will have to produce wet power injectables if we are allowed to produce the vaccine. We have made preliminary changes and once permission is given, we can install the required machinery for Covid-19 vaccine,” he said.
Sena MP Barne said he has already written a letter to Union Chemical and Fertiliser Minister D V Sadananda Gowda and Union Health Minister Harsh Vandhan, urging them to given permission to HA to manufacture a Covid-19 vaccine and Remdesivir injections. “I have also spoke to Gowda on the phone. He sounded positive and said the government will give permission by July-August,” he said.
Barne said HA was the first penicillin factory in the country. “HA had been declared a sick unit but it has been on the revival path. Some time ago, the Centre had given Rs 400 crore as part of its revival package. During the pandemic, HA has produced PPE kits and sanitisers worth Rs 100 crore,” he said.
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Barne said in Pune, both PMC and PCMC are struggling to get adequate stock of vaccines and similar is the fate of the entire district. “If HA had been given permission earlier to produce a vaccine earlier, cases and deaths would have drastically come down…,” he said.
He said the government should also give permission to HA for manufacturing Remdesivir. “The entire district has been facing shortage of the life-saving drug. HA has the capability to produce Remdesivir. I hope along with manufacturing vaccines, HA will also get permission for Remdesivir production,” he said.
BJP corporator Sandeep Waghere has also written a letter to the PCMC administration, urging it to provide financial assistance to HA so that it can install machinery needed for manufacturing vaccines. “The PCMC can provide financial assistance to HA and in turn, HA can provide vaccines at cheaper rate to Pimpri-Chinchwad… which will thus get vaccinated in a shorter period,” he said.
Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades.
Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives.
Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees.
During Covid, over 50 doctors were asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa.
Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died.
Manoj More is on Facebook with 4.9k followers (Manoj More), on twitter manojmore91982 ... Read More
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