New Delhi: Bharat Biotech fixes the price COVID-19 the vaccine, Covaxin, at Rs 600 per dose for state governments and at Rs 1200 per dose for private hospitals, the vaccine manufacturer announced on Saturday.
In a statement, Bharat Biotech, Chairman and Managing Director, Krishna M Ella, said the company was delivering the vaccine to the Central Government at Rs 150 per dose. “We want to say that more than 50 percent of our capacity is reserved for Central Government supplies,” Ella said.
The recovery of costs is essential in the journey of innovation to other vaccines such as intranasal Covid-19, Chikungunya, Zika, Cholera and others, he added. The company labeled the vaccine between $ 15 and $ 20 for export markets.
Earlier this week, Serum Institute of India (SII) announced a price of Rs 400 per dose for ‘Covishield’ for state governments and Rs 600 for private hospitals. The company also said it would address the issue of limited capacity for the next two months by stepping up vaccine production.
“Furthermore, 50 per cent of our capacity will be devoted to the vaccination program of the Government of India, and the remaining 50 per cent of the capacity will be for the state governments and private hospitals,” Serum Institute of India said in a statement. .
US vaccines in the private market cost more than Rs 1500 per dose, while Russian and Chinese vaccines cost more than Rs 750 per dose, he noted. Covishield accounts for more than 90 percent of the 12.76 million COVID-19 vaccines administered so far across the country, according to government data on Wednesday.
Of the 127 605 870 COVID-19 11,60,65,107 are from Covishield, while 1,15,40,763 are Covaxin, according to the government’s CO-WIN portal.
Earlier in the day, the government waived the right to import customs duties COVID vaccines as well as medical-grade oxygen and related equipment, as the country battled the worst health crisis with a ‘tsunami’ of infections setting a new world record for the third consecutive day.
The decision to exempt taxes was taken at a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to promote the availability of oxygen in the country.
Customs waiver on imported vaccines will help keep the cost of overseas vaccines low, which is being looked at to supplement locally made shots before the opening of COVID-19 vaccination for all citizens older than 18 years.
The government has previously waived customs duties on imported Remdesivir injections and the medicine’s active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) to increase stocks.
India on Saturday reported a record 346,786 new infections, bringing the total to 1.66 million. Deaths also rose by a record 2,624 to a total of 189,544.
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Serum’s COVID private vaccine at Rs 600 per dose; government costs at Rs 400
Source: Telangana Today