Rate Of Covishield Increased To Rs 400 Per Dose For State Governments, Rs 600 For Private Hospitals: Serum Institute
Sumit Singh
Pune, 21 April 2021: As the Government of India plans a massive vaccination drive against Coronavirus disease (COVID19) from May 1, Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII) which manufactures Corona vaccine COVISHIELD, has increased its rate to Rs 400 per dose for the state governments and Rs 600 per dose for private hospitals.
Earlier, governments had received it for Rs 150 per dose and people got it at Rs 250 per dose in private hospitals. Recently, the central government granted Rs 3000 crore to Serum Institute to boost the vaccine production capacity.
Adar Poonawalla, CEO of Serum Institute of India, said, “We welcome the recent announcement made by the Government of India’s Ministry of Health and Finance Ministry to accelerate India’s vaccination drive. The promising directives will help to scale- up vaccine production and allow state governments, private hospitals, and vaccination centres to procure vaccines directly.
For the next two months, we will address the limited capacity by scaling up the vaccine production. Going ahead, 50% of our capacities will be served to the Government of India’s vaccination program, and the remaining 50% of the capacity will be for the State governments and private hospitals.
Following the Government of India directives, we are hereby announcing the prices of the vaccine:
SII’s COVISHEILD – Price per dose
State Governments – INR 400
Private Hospitals – INR 600
Considering the global vaccine prices, we are ensuring that our vaccines are affordable in comparison to any other vaccines in the world”, Poonawalla informed.
Global Vaccines in the private market- Price per dose
American Vaccines > INR 1500
Russian Vaccines > INR 750
Chinese Vaccines > INR 750
Poonawalla added, “Owing to the complexity, and urgency of the situation it is challenging to supply it independently to each corporate entity. We would urge all corporate and private individuals to access the vaccines through the state facilitated machinery and private health systems. Post 4-5 months, the vaccines will be made available in retail and free trade. We would like to assure you that we will continue to do our best to help everyone and would request you all to be patient with us.”
“The low socioeconomic group of the population should be given at subsidised rates due to fewer earnings in lockdown. It should see that the vaccination process is not slowed down due to economic reasons”, said Dr Raju Varyani, Vice President, Indian Medical Association (IMA) Pune.
