Covaxin dearer than Covishield: States to pay ₹600, private hospitals ₹1,200
India’s indigenous vaccine Covaxin, manufactured by Bharat Biotech, will cost ₹600 a dose for state governments and ₹1,200 for private hospitals, the pharma major said in a statement on Saturday (April 24).
The export cost of the vaccine will be between $15 and $20 per shot.
“Recovering costs is essential in the journey of innovation towards other vaccines such as Intranasal COVID-19…Our core mission for the last 25 years has been to provide affordable, yet world-class healthcare solutions for the globe,” Krishna M Ella, chairman and MD of Bharat Biotech said in the statement.
Stressing that the Covaxin is an inactivated and purified vaccine, the company said “all costs towards product development, manufacturing facilities and clinical trials were deployed primarily using internal funding and resources of Bharat Biotech.”
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The announcement of revised vaccine prices comes ahead of the Centre’s fourth phase of vaccination against COVID-19, meant for those above 18 years, from May 1 onwards.
Recently, announcing revised rates of Covishield, Serum Institute of India said that a shot of the vaccine will cost ₹400 to state governments and ₹600 to private hospitals.
The Centre, however, would continue to procure the vaccine at the lowest cost of ₹150 per shot.
The Centre recently announced tweaks in the vaccination programme, allowing vaccine-makers to sell 50 per cent their product directly to state and in the open market. The rest 50 per cent will be sold to the Centre. While the new vaccination policy make it imperative for states to procure vaccines for the inoculation of those in the age group of 18-45, states have to buy the shots at the revised prices to do the same.
Several states, organisations as well as the Opposition have criticised the differential pricing of vaccines for the Centre and states and have demanded a rollback of the new vaccine policy.
In its defence, the Centre on Saturday clarified that it would continue to procure both Covaxin and Covishield at ₹150 per dose and supply it to states free of cost like before.
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India on Sunday logged in a record-high of 3.49 lakh daily COVID-19 infections and 2,767 deaths, which took its caseload to 1.69 crore. This is the fourth consecutive day when the country has logged in more than 3 lakh daily cases and over 2,000 deaths.
