BMC Commissioner claims to receive bid from Pfizer for its COVID-19 vaccine procurement tender, company denies

Mumbai: After Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) Commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal claimed that Mumbai has received a bid from Pfizer in response to its COVID-19 vaccine procurement tender, Pfizer issued a statement clarifying that it has made no such bid.

The pharmaceutical company in its clarification stated that neither Pfizer nor any of its affiliates globally, including in India, have authorised anyone to import/market/distribute the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID 19 vaccine.

A spokesperson of Pfizer said, "As stated earlier, during this pandemic phase, across the world, Pfizer is supplying its COVID-19 vaccine only to central governments and supra-national organizations for deployment in national immunization programs.

"Neither Pfizer Inc nor any of its affiliates globally, including in India, have authorized anyone to import/market/distribute the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID 19 vaccine. We continue to have ongoing discussions with the Government of India towards making our vaccine available for use nationally," stated the official.

Earlier in the day, BMC Commissioner Iqbal Singh had announced that Mumbai received eight bids so far including one from Pfizer and seven from Sputnik.

Singh said, "In response to MCGM's Global Expression of Interest for procurement of 1 crore vaccine doses, I wish to inform that 8 bids have been received till date. One bid is for Pfizer/Astra Zeneca and remaining 7 bids are for Sputnik." "The time period has been extended by one week to enable the various bidders to submit complete set of documents in support of the bids as prescribed under MCGM's Global Expression of Interest. Any additional bid shall also be entertained," he added.