Serum Institute Defends COVISHIELD Vaccine Price, Issues Clarification

Pune, 24th April 2021: Serum Institute of India CEO Adar Poonawalla today said that “We have for the past five decades been at the forefront of supplying vaccines and saving lives globally. We care about and respect every human life and strongly believe in transparency, and thus we hope our statement below can clear any confusion.”

Poonawalla issued a statement to “address the ongoing public skepticism and confusion towards the pricing of COVISHIELD and in the spirit of maintaining absolute transparency in everything we do and have done.

– 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, the 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.

– Furthermore, there was an inaccurate comparison done between the global prices of the vaccine with India. 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.

– The current situation is extremely dire; the virus is constantly mutating while the public remains at risk. To identify 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.

– Only a limited portion of SII’s volume will be sold to private hospitals at INR 600 per dose. The price of the vaccine is still lower than a lot of other medical treatments 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.

“We hope this lay to rest the confusion for which we are happy to in a fully transparent manner explain our various pricing policies”, Poonawalla concluded.

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