Justifying the pricing offered for the Covishield vaccine, Serum Institute of India CEO Adar Poonawalla on Saturday said that the company would now have to invest in scaling up the production to fight the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Pune-headquartered SII has offered their vaccine at Rs 400 per dose for state governments and Rs 600 per dose for private hospitals, while it has given the same for Rs 150 per dose to the Central government.
“Government procurement for countrywide immunization programs in all countries including India has been at a far lower price as the volumes are very large. For instance, based on the market conditions, prices of 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,” Poonawalla said in a press statement.
According to him, the comparison done between the global prices of the vaccine with that in India was inaccurate.
“Covishield is the most affordable Covid-19 vaccine available in the market today. The initial prices were kept very low globally as it was based on advance funding given by those countries for at-risk vaccine manufacturing. The initial supply price of Covishield for all government immunization programmes, including India, has been the lowest,” he said.
Poonawalla said that because of the rapid spread and mutation of the coronavirus, the public remains at risk. “Identifying the uncertainty, we have to ensure sustainability as we must be able to invest in scaling up and expanding our capacity to fight the pandemic and save lives,” he said.
He also said that a limited portion of SII's volume 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 Covid-19 and other life-threatening diseases. Furthermore, 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 program of our country,” he added.
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