Published 3 March 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b864
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;338:b864

News

India’s health ministry is accused of damaging vaccine production

Ganapati Mudur

1 New Delhi

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

The Ministry of Health in India has undermined the country’s century old legacy of public sector vaccine production, exacerbated vaccine shortages, and jeopardised the immunisation programme, say several healthcare organisations in a complaint to the Indian Supreme Court.

A petition filed last week wants the court to revoke an order by the health ministry last year that had suspended production of vaccines at three government vaccine manufacturing plants. The ministry had said that the plants did not meet standards of good manufacturing practice.

The Central Research Institute, in Kasauli, in the northern state of Himachal Pradesh, the Pasteur Institute of India, in Coonoor, Tamil Nadu, and the Vaccine Laboratory, in Chennai, were producing vaccines against diphtheria, measles, whooping cough, polio, rabies, tetanus, tuberculosis, and yellow fever.

Senior health ministry officials said that inspections at these plants over the past five years had revealed structural, process, and documentation deficiencies.

But the . . . [Full text of this article]


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