India scraps ties with Gates on immunisation

The decision is seen as part of India’s broader clampdown on non-governmental organisations to assert control over decision making in key policy areas. Last year, India ordered the dismissal of dozens of foreign-funded health experts working on public welfare schemes. 

The Gates Foundation has for years funded the Immunisation Technical Support Unit, which provides strategy and monitoring advice for New Delhi’s massive immunisation program that covers about 27 million infants each year. 

It will now be funded by the government which felt there was a need to completely manage the crucial program on its own, senior health ministry official Soumya Swaminathan told Reuters. 

“There was a perception that an external agency is funding it, so there could be influence,” Swaminathan said on Wednesday. Swaminathan, however, stressed there were no instances of influence found and the decision was only in part prompted by a wider perception about foreign funding of the program. The unit will continue to exist, she said. 

A spokeswoman for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation said its grant for the ITSU ends this month. “We are in advanced stages of discussion with the ministry on the contours of the next phase of technical support,” she said. 

Critics have in the past raised concerns the BMGF should not have any associa-tion with the program due to apparent conflicts of interest. That’s because BMGF also backs GAVI, a global vaccine alliance that counts big pharmaceutical companies as its partners. 

India’s immunisation program vaccinates children to shield them from life-threatening conditions such as measles and polio, and is viewed by experts as crucial for improving public health.