The government has thus far procured vaccines at a lower price compared to the global market. [Source: Reuters]

COVID-19 vaccine may be priced at around Rs 1,000 per dose for private players. At this rate, depending on the vaccine, manufacturers would have a profit of Rs 650 a dose.

"The prices of foreign vaccines may be higher than this as they need sophisticated cold chain infrastructure. Also, the government will monitor the prices we set for the private market. So, nothing is concrete as of now,” an industry source told Business Standard.

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The government has asked manufacturers to declare the price at which they would supply the COVID-19 vaccine to the open market, including companies, private hospitals, and state governments before May 1, the report said.

The government has thus far procured vaccines at a lower price compared to the global market. Oxford University-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine costs $2.06 per shot in India, while it sells at $3.6 per dose globally.

COVID-19 Vaccine

Frequently Asked Questions

How does a vaccine work?

A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine.

How many types of vaccines are there?

There are broadly four types of vaccine — one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine.

What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind?

Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time.

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COVID-19 vaccines to cost Rs 1,000 in private market, Bharat Biotech wants 'maximum' price for Covaxin

Bharat Biotch expects to reach a production capacity of up to 800 million doses per annum by July-August.

The government has thus far procured vaccines at a lower price compared to the global market. [Source: Reuters]

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