The Serum Institute of India announced on Wednesday that the price of its Covishield vaccine will be Rs 400 for state governments and Rs 600 for private hospitals. This comes after the Union government said that 50% of the vaccines from May 1 will be directed to the Union government for procurement and the other 50% will be sold to states and in the open market.
The doses procured by the Union government so far is at Rs 200. According to a PTI report, SII will supply 200 million doses to the government by July at a pre-agreed rate of Rs 150 per dose.
In a statement, the Serum Institute said, “For the next two months, we will address the limited capacity by scaling up the vaccine production. Going ahead, 50% of our capacities will be served to the Government of India's vaccination program, and the remaining 50% of the capacity will be for the State governments and private hospitals.”
It said that the Union government’s directives will help scale up vaccine production, and “allow state governments, private hospitals, and vaccination centers to procure vaccines directly.”
It, however, stressed that it would be challenging to supply to corporate entities individually in retail trade, and said it will be made available in retail and free trade after 4-5 months. “We would urge all corporate and private individuals to access the vaccines through the state facilitated machinery and private health systems. Post 4-5 months, the vaccines will be made available in retail and free trade.”
Serum compared its pricing to that of other other countries, and said that American vaccines are at over Rs 1,000 per dose, and that Russian and Chinese vaccines are priced at over Rs 750.
Recently, reports said that the governnment relaxed rules to allow advance payment without bank guarantee to help the vaccine makers ramp up production. SII will get Rs 3,000 crore in advance, as per this.
The government on Monday allowed citizens over the age of 18 years to receive vaccination from May 1. Manufacturers will be required to supply 50% of their monthly doses to the government and the rest to state governments or the open market.
Vaccination will continue as before in the government of India vaccination centres free of cost for the eligible population -- healthcare and frontline workers and all people above 45 years of age.
With PTI inputs