A healthworker hold vials of Covishield vaccine.
The Serum Institute of India (SII) on Saturday said only a limited portion of its vaccines 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, it added.
"Government procurement for countrywide immunisation programs in all countries inlcuding 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," SII said.
"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 give by those countries for at-risk vaccine manufacturing. The initial supply price of Covishield for all government immunisation programme, including India, has been the lowest," SII mentioned.
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 immunisation program of our country, SII added.
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