The Serum Institute of India (SII,) on the 21st of April, announced new prices of the SII manufactured anti Novel Coronavirus vaccine, Covisheild.
According to the sources, the new prices at which the SII’s Covisheild would be sold are Rs. 400 and Rs. 600 per dose for government and private hospitals, respectively.
The doses with new prices would be available in the third phase of the vaccination drive, starting from the 1st of May. The announcement came two days after the Central Government announced the third phase of vaccination permitting people above 18 to be eligible for the vaccine doses. However, people below 45 and above 18 would not be able to take free doses of COVID-19 vaccines and would be paying for their doses.
In the third phase, the COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers, the SII and the Hyderabad based Bharat Biotech International Private Limited are allowed to directly deliver the vaccines to the states and union territories and set prices accordingly.
The Serum Institute of India administration said, “Considering the global vaccine prices, we are ensuring that our vaccines are affordable in comparison to any other vaccines in the world.”
Adar Poonawalla, the Executive Chief of the Serum Institute of India, released a statement on the 21st of April and said, “Owing to the complexity, and urgency of the situation it is challenging to supply it independently to each corporate entity. We would urge all corporate and private individuals to access the vaccines through the state facilitated machinery and private health systems. After 4-5 months, the vaccines will be made available in retail and free trade.”
Poonawalla’s announcement of separate pricing for states and private hospitals follows the Central government’s decision on Monday to expand the scale of vaccination to include direct procurement by states and the private market.
The Serum Institute currently produces around 60-70 million doses of Covishield every month, while Bharat Biotech’s monthly Covaxin manufacturing capacity is around 10 million.
With the third phase soon to begin, which would have the majority of Indian population eligible for COVID-19 vaccine doses, the manufacturers need to have a plan for capacity expansion to fulfil the need of the Central Government’s free vaccination program, state government’s demands and private hospitals’ need of vaccine. From the 1st of May, 50 % of the production will directly go to the Central Government and the remaining 50 % production would be divided among states of India and private hospitals at the fixed price of Rs. 400 and Rs. 600.
The Serum Institute of India expected to scale up its capacity to 100 million doses only late next month at the earliest, while Bharat Biotech to increase capacity to around 30 million doses per month.
Stay tuned for further updates.
