Over 100 million Covid-19 vaccine doses wasted in India by September-end

Covid-19 vaccine makers have no plans to seek further shelf life extensions

India may have wasted a little over 100 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines by the end of September, as the doses were past their shelf lives. Assuming a price of Rs 225 per dose (for Covishield and Covaxin), the value of the wasted stock is around Rs 2,250 crore.

Meanwhile, sources in the vaccine manufacturing industry indicate that they have no plans to seek further extensions in shelf lives of these Covid-19 vaccines. “These were formulated in a way that they have nine-12 months’ shelf lives. So, initially, firms were submitting stability data from batches over a period of time to extend shelf life. But, now there is no such plan,” said a senior executive of a vaccine firm who did not want to be named.

Typically, non-Covid-19 vaccines have three-year shelf lives. The executive quoted above added that new-generation Covid-19 vaccines were likely to come up — intranasal, or those based on Omicron strain et al — that would be more in demand in future.

The 75-day Amrit Mahotsav Covid-19 free vaccination drive by the Centre helped improve coverage of precaution doses to 27 per cent from 8 per cent coverage, when the campaign started in mid-July.

More than 7.6 million first doses, 23.5 million second doses, and 159.2 million precaution doses have been administered during this period. During the campaign, more than 2.47 million doses have been administered daily including 2 million precaution doses per day.

The Union health ministry noted that around 21.9 million doses of vaccines were available with states as of October 2. The offtake in the last few days has been quite slow — in the range of 2-3 lakh doses per day.

Serum Institute of India (SII) indicated that it had about 200 million doses of Covishield vaccines around June-July, most of which were set to expire by September.

“We were producing 250 million doses a month at the end of 2021, and suddenly we had to stop because there was no demand even in the export markets. We decided to fill and finish the products that were already made into bulk form, or else they would have started expiring. From the month of August, we have got batches every month that will expire — about 20 million to 30 million doses will expire every month from now on,” Adar Poonawalla, CEO of SII, had told <Business Standard> in August.

The entire lot of 200 million doses will expire by February-March next year, Poonawalla had said.

Thanks to the 75-day government drive, and exports, around 100 million doses have been salvaged, sources indicated.

Similarly, Bharat Biotech had a stockpile of 50 million doses in April when the company stopped production of the vaccine. The Hyderabad-based vaccine maker did not wish to share the exact break-up of the stockpile that lies with them now, but said that they had seen some offtake due to the drive.

Covaxin, unlike Covishield, has a 12-month shelf life, and thus a portion of Bharat Biotech’s stock will expire by next March or so. According to industry estimates, around 5-7 million doses of Covaxin may have expired by September.

Biological E had supplied around 100 million doses of Corbevax to the Centre till June, and so far around 72.8 million doses have been administered. The balance of around 28 million doses has a shelf life of a few more months.

While exact numbers cannot be ascertained in the absence of official data, industry estimates suggest a ballpark figure of over 100 million doses going to waste.

Sell-by date

• A little over 100 million Covid-19 vaccine doses estimated to be wasted by September-end
• Value of the doses is around Rs 2,250 crore at current market prices
• Bulk of wastage is of Covishield, which had September expiry date
• Vaccine makers have no plans to seek further extension of doses’ shelf lives