Serum Institute Defends ‘Rs 600/Dose Of Covishield’ For Pvt Hospitals

Pune: The Serum Institute of India (SII) on Saturday said that only a limited portion of its volume of Covidshield will be sold to private hospitals at Rs 600 per dose.

“The price of the vaccine is still lower than a lot of other medical treatment and essentials required to treat COVID19 and other life-threatening diseases,” the press statement, which was released to address the confusion towards the pricing of vaccine, said.

It came hours after Union Health Ministry issued a clarification stating that the Centre will procure the vaccine at Rs 150 only. And those doses will be provided free to the states.

The SII manufactures AstraZeneca’s vaccine Covishield at its Pune facility and earlier this week it had said that both the Centre and the state governments will have to pay Rs 400 for new orders.

Elaborating further, it said that the initial prices of the COVID-19 vaccine were low globally due to advance funding but it will need investment to scale up the production now.

“There was an inaccurate comparison done between the global prices of the vaccine with India. Covisheld is the most affordable vaccine available in the market today. Many vaccines in the private market including our pneumococcal vaccine are sold at a higher free-economy price, whereas for the government it is almost 1/3rd of the free market price,” the statement said.

In the interest of public health, it is important for the market to open up for other vaccines from across the world. This will accelerate and advance the immunization programme of our country, the statement added.