New Delhi: Serum Institute of India, which makes essentially the most used COVID-19 vaccine within the nation, on Saturday (April 24) defended pricing Covishield vaccine at 1.5 instances the preliminary fee, saying the sooner worth was based mostly on advance funding and now it has to spend money on scaling up and increasing capability to produce extra photographs.
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SII defends COVID vaccine pricing
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Serum Institute of India (SII), which manufactures AstraZeneca’s vaccine Covishield at its Pune facility, earlier this week introduced a worth of Rs 600 per dose and at Rs 400 for state governments and any new contract by the central authorities. This in contrast to Rs 150 per dose it costs the central authorities for the prevailing provides.
“There was an inaccurate comparison done between the global prices of the vaccine with India,” SII stated. “Covisheld is the most affordable Covid-19 vaccine available in the market today.”
The preliminary worth, it stated, was “kept low globally as it was based on advance funding given by those countries for at risk vaccine manufacturing.”
“The initial supply price of Covishield for all government immunization programme, including India, has been the lowest,” it stated. “The current situation is extremely dire, the virus is constantly mutating while the public remains at risk. Identifying the uncertainty, we have to ensure sustainability as we must be able to invest in scaling up and expanding our capacity to fight the pandemic and save lives.”
SII to present a restricted dose of COVID vaccine to non-public hospitals
SII went on to add that solely a restricted portion of SII’s quantity can be bought to non-public 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.Â
(With PTI inputs)
