Serum lowers vax price for states; hospital rates same

Bharat Bio yet to respond to govt diktat on rate cut

Days after the Centre asked Covid-19 vaccine makers to cut prices for the universal immunisation drive, Punebased Serum Institute of India (SII) has responded with a 25 per cent reduction in the rate card for state governments. Adar Poonawalla, CVO of SII, put out a message on his Twitter handle on Wednesday that Covishield would be available at ~300 per dose for state governments.

Just a week ago, SII had fixed the price at ~400 a dose for states and ~600 for private hospitals, while continuing to offer it at ~150 to the Centre, setting off a row over differential pricing.

The Covishield price for private hospitals remains the same at ~600 per dose, according to sources.

The other vaccine maker Bharat Biotech is yet to announce any change in the prices of Covaxin. The company had priced Covaxin at ~600 per dose for states and ~1,200 per dose for private hospitals recently.

Poonawalla tweeted, “As a philanthropic gesture on behalf of @Seruminstindia, I hereby reduce the price to the states from ~400 to ~300 per dose, effective immediately; this will save thousands of crores of state funds going forward. This will enable more vaccinations and save countless lives.”

Vaccine companies had announced their prices for state governments and private hospitals recently after the Centre said that 50 per cent of the supplies in India could be procured by state governments and private hospitals for inoculating those above 18 years.

Sources pointed out that both SII and Bharat Biotech had discussed the pricing strategy with the Centre before their announcement earlier this month.

In an interview to a TV channel recently, Poonawalla had said that the price for the central government would also change to ~400 per dose after the end of the current phase involving 100 million doses at ~150 each. The Centre was quick to clarify that it would continue to procure Covishield at ~150 per dose, prompting states to raise concern over a threetiered pricing strategy. Demand for ‘One India-one price’ has dominated the vaccine dialogue ever since.

Poonawalla has stated that it has to pay 50 per cent as royalty to innovator firm Astrazeneca and a price of ~150 per dose was not allowing any margins. He had sought ~3,000 crore as grant from the Centre to dedicate another plant to make Covishield. The Union government followed up with a ~3,000-crore supplier credit for the future doses SII would supply.