The Serum Institute of India (SII) has announced that it will price its Covishield vaccine at INR 600 per dose for private hospitals and INR 400 per dose for state governments.
This follows a recent government announcement to expand vaccination to all citizens of over 18 years in the country from May. The government has also allowed companies to sell 50 per cent of their capacity to States and to private entities.
In an official statement, SII has said, "For the next two months, we will address the limited capacity by scaling up the vaccine production. Going ahead, 50 per cent of our capacities will be served to the Government of India's vaccination program, and the remaining 50 per cent of the capacity will be for the state governments and private hospitals."
Comparing the prices with the other vaccines in the world, SII has stated that while American vaccines are priced at INR 1,500, Russian and Chinese vaccines would cost INR 750 per dose, making Covishield a cheaper option.
However, the vaccine price will remain at INR 150 per dose for the Centre.
SII Chief Adar Poonawalla said the Centre’s directives would help scale up vaccine production and allow State governments, private hospitals, and vaccination centres to procure vaccines directly. SII will also receive INR 3,000 crores support from the Centre.
Furthermore, owing to the “complexity and urgency of the situation” and challenges in supplying doses independently to corporate entities, the Serum Institute urged corporates and private individuals to access vaccines through the state-facilitated machinery and private health systems.
IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT pic.twitter.com/bTsMs8AKth
— SerumInstituteIndia (@SerumInstIndia) April 21, 2021
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday, April 20, urged India's vaccine manufacturers to continuously scale up their production capacity to vaccinate all Indians in the shortest possible time. India on Wednesday recorded nearly 3 lakh fresh cases in its biggest jump so far. The death toll has also gone up by over 2,000 in a day.
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