Bharat Biotech, the developer of Covaxin, said on Saturday that the indigenous vaccine will be priced at Rs. 600 per dose in state government hospitals and Rs. 1200 for private hospitals.
The vaccine price for the private hospitals will shoot up to almost 8 times the current supplies they are getting through central government. Similarly, state governments will pay up to 4 times i.e. Rs. 600 per shot, at which the government will get the vaccine.
At these rates the Covaxin will come at twice the price of Serum Institute of India’s Covishield for private hospitals and for states too, there will be a difference of Rs. 200 per shot.
Unlike the Serum Institute of India which is seeking to increase the rate for the centre by Rs. 400, Bharat Biotech intends to keep the rate of the vaccine unchanged at Rs. 150 for the central government.
The Hyderabad based company argued that the increase of price is based on the fact that in export market, the vaccine price is at $15-20 per dose (Rs. 1,125-1,500).
While the Serum Institute is already facing backlash for this decision, their actions are under the scanner.
The Serum Institute’s CEO, Adar Poonawalla, issued a statement on the company’s behalf and justified the increase in the price. He stated that the price increase was on the grounds that it was required to make it sustainable for the company to invest in scaling up capacity. The company maintained that Covishield is the most affordable Covid-19 vaccine.
Adar said that the initial supply prices for Covishield used in all government immunization program, including India’s, was the lowest. The company further argued that as low funding was available, the low price of the vaccine became possible.
He further added, “The price of the vaccine is still lower than a lot of other medical treatments and essentials required to treat Covid 19 and other life threatening diseases.”
“Only a portion of Serum Institute’s volume will be sold to private hospitals at Rs. 600 per dose. His statement also said, ” Government procurement for country wide immunization programmes in all countries including India has been at a far lower price as the volumes are very large.”
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