The Supreme Court has issued a notice to the Union Health Minister A. Ramadoss over the closure of three public sector undertakings (PSUs) manufacturing vaccines like DPT, measles, polio and BCG.

The three PSUs are Central Research Institute of Himachal Pradesh, Coonoors Pasteur Institute of India and BCG Vaccine Lab in Chennai.

Due to their failure to comply with the Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) as under the Drugs and Cosmetics Rules, 1945 as well as the GMP laid down by the World Health Organization (WHO), the production in these units were suspended last year.

The court has sought a response from the Health Ministry.

The bench headed by Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan and Justice P. Sathasivam issued notices on a PIL filed by S.P. Shukla, a former special secretary in the health ministry, besides several other individuals and organizations.

The filed PIL said that the 103-year-old anti-rabies vaccine plant at Kasauli in Himachal Pradesh is the only set up in South Asia to produce yellow fever vaccine and the world’s first anti-rabies vaccine. Besides this, it also produces vaccines for DTP, typhoid, Japanese Encephalitis and serum against diphtheria, tetanus, rabies, snake venom and diagnostic reagents, besides serving as the quality control centre for vaccines produced by other public sector units.

The PIL said that the Coonoor institute was the country’s first institute to come up with an anti-rabies serum vaccine for human beings in 1917.  

About the Chennai laboratory, it pointed out that it was the union health ministry’s sole unit with a prestigious international certification.

Commenting over this issue in the Lok Sabha on 18th February, A Ramadoss had said, “The government has not taken any decision to close down the three public sector vaccine manufacturing units.”