Centre places orders for 44 crore doses of Covishield and Covaxin

The Centre on Tuesday said it placed fresh orders to buy 44 crores of Covid-19 vaccine doses from two Indian manufacturers and the doses would be available for use from August onward.

This would include 25 crore doses of Covishield manufactured by Serum Institute of India and 19 crore doses of Cavaxin produced by Bharat Biotech. The two companies would supply the doses between August and December.

The government paid 30% of the cost as advance payment, said V K Paul, NITI Ayog member and the government’s principal advisor on the Covid-19 epidemic.

The Centre had earlier pre-booked 30 crore doses of a protein sub-unit vaccine that would be produced by Hyderabad-based firm BiologicalE.

Read more: Centre issues revised guidelines for vaccination; manufacturers to decide rates for pvt hospitals

“The provisional scientific data of the Biological E vaccine was promising. The vaccine is undergoing the last phase of the clinical trial and may be available by September. Taken together, we have secured 74 crore doses that will start coming from August,” he said.

The government was waiting for the company to announce the price of its vaccine, named Corbevax, before negotiation. Part of the advance payment of Rs 1,500 crore made to BiologicalE would meet part of the vaccine price.

The new tranche of vaccine doses would start flowing in after the existing order of 53.6 crore doses is exhausted.

The Centre has so far provided 24.65 crore doses to the states that used 23.88 crore doses so far. Another 1.19 crore doses are either with the state or are in the pipeline.

Paul said government officials had a meeting with the two manufacturers on May 24 before finalising the new vaccination policy. Later the manufacturers would also provide a month-wise road map on vaccine availability.

Last week, the Supreme Court asked the government to submit its vaccine availability roadmap till December 2021 before the court.

Meanwhile in the wake of reports of private hospitals charging more than the stipulated rates for Covid-19 vaccines, the Union Health Ministry once again on Tuesday informed the states about the prices of the three available vaccines and what maximum amount can be charged for each dose.

For Covishield, the price set by the manufacturer is Rs 600 per dose, which after adding the GST and service charge would translate into Rs 780 at private Covid vaccination sites. Similarly for Covaxin, the base price is Rs 1,200 per dose, while the final cost would be Rs 1,410 for a single dose. The Sputnik-V (Rs 948) will cost Rs 1,145 to a recipient.