By putting at rest all the speculations about the revival of closed vaccine units, especially the BCG Lab in Chennai, the director of Vaccines in the Union Health Ministry, Sanjay Prasad said all the three units will be revived as stated by the Union Health Minster Gulam Nabi Azad in the Parliament.
The director was speaking to Pharmabiz over telephone from New Delhi.
There was speculation that BCG Lab will not be revived despite pressures from all concerned, and that it was going to be converted into a Testing Laboratory.
The major factor for the speculation was that when efforts are to renovate the building and restructuring of infrastructural facilities in PII Coonoor and CRI Kasauli going on, nothing substantial was happening in the BCG Lab in Chennai. When Pharmabiz contacted the director Dr Usha Sworen Sing, she said the Institute was lacking technical staffs and GMP facilities. It needed validation in every sector. Further there were allegations that the new director was taking no fruitful effort towards reviving the unit.
"The process for revival of the units in the ministry level is going on. There are so many procedures to be followed. The licences of the units were cancelled due to non-compliance of GMP norms. The units have to submit budgetary proposals. After all, the revival depends on GMP status and it needs money also," Sanjay Prasad told Pharmabiz.
When asked whether the units have already submitted proposals, he said, "Everybody can give proposals for thousand crore or two hundred crore. But sometimes revival will be of Rs 20 crore only. So the problem of money also has to be solved."
To another query regarding current renovation, the director replied that some process was going on only in CRI Kasauli.
The three units were closed their production following an order from the DCGI in January 2008.
