Discriminatory and unjust vaccine policy

There is discrimination writ large in India’s vaccine pricing policy which forms part of the drive for expanding vaccinations to a larger part of the population.

The liberalised policy makes all adults 18 years of age and above eligible for vaccination from May 1 but the pricing scheme goes against the policy of free and universal vaccination pursued by the country for decades. The differential pricing is irrational and arbitrary, and is not in public interest as it might leave large sections of the people, especially those belonging to the underprivileged sections of the population, out of vaccine coverage.

There is also a shifting of responsibility by the Central government to the states without giving them the necessary agency and wherewithal to discharge that responsibility. The price scheme is against all principles of price management, especially because it is about the price of Covid vaccine which should be considered a public good and not a commercial product.

The vaccine manufacturers in India — the Serum Institute of India and Bharat Biotech — will supply 50 % of the vaccine they produce to the Central government and the other 50 % to state governments and the private sector. SII, whose Covishield, developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford, is the main vaccine being offered in India, will supply it for Rs 150 a dose to the Centre, Rs 400 a dose to state governments and Rs 600 to the private sector.

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Bharat Biotech will supply its vaccine at Rs 150 to the Centre, Rs 600 to states and Rs 1,200 to private hospitals. There is no justification for pricing the same product differently for different buyers. It is ethically wrong and should be considered a malpractice, especially because the vaccine is a life-saving and essential commodity.

Covishield is not a commercial product in the usual sense, because it was developed with public funding. Public money from India is also going into the production of vaccines because the government is funding the capacity expansion of the two Indian manufacturers. SII had once stated that at Rs 150 a dose the company was making normal profit. Its profit would be considerable because it is producing the vaccine on a large scale, and therefore pricing it above Rs 150 would amount to profiteering.

It is particularly wrong to make the state governments, which are in dire financial straits, pay a higher price for the vaccine. It is the Central government's duty to provide free and universal vaccination to all citizens. Strangely, when it has set a price for the vaccine, it has promised free vaccinations in West Bengal if it comes to power there. A discriminatory and unjust vaccine policy would make the state a commercial entity, far from the ideal of a welfare state.