Govt to buy 5,000 anti-snake vaccines from India
KATHMANDU, AUG 26 -
The government on Sunday decided to buy 5,000 viles of anti- snake venom serum (ASVS) in its attempt to fend off the present crisis of the life-saving medicine. At least two deaths have been reported in the past one month owing to the shortage of anti-venom vaccines.
The Logistics Management Division (LMD) under the Department of Health Services is all set to buy ASVS from VINS Bioproducts Ltd, India, after it was the only company that sent price details out of the five companies where letters were sent. The cost for the anti-venom vaccine would be around Rs 5.25 million.
LMD Director Dr Tara Nath Pokhrel said the division has already placed the order and the company has agreed to supply ASVS within 10 days. The LMD went ahead with the plan in accordance with a clause of the Public Procurement Regulations that authorises the government to directly buy the goods from a company under a ‘special condition’. The authorities were forced to buy directly from VINS Bioproducts after none of the other companies agreed to supply ASVS even after repeated tender calls.
The government had called the first bid in January, but there were no takers. Then the department wrote to five Indian companies seeking quotations. It asked VINS Bioproducts, Bharat Serum Ltd, Haffkine Institute for Training, Research and Testing, Serum Institute of India and King Institute of Preventive Medicine & Research to submit price details. However, till July 11 none of them replied except VINS that put the unit cost at Rs 1,051.2—twice the price made two years ago. The demand for ASVS is around 40,000 units annually.
Experts say the demand for anti-venom vaccines is higher between mid-June and September-end when the number of snake bite cases go up during the monsoon. Every year around 150 people die of snake venom. The government has been providing anti- snake venom free of cost since 2000 in 26 districts through 42 outlets. Depending on the amount of poison in the patient’s body, up to 27 phials of anti-venom are used in a single case.
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