Serum Institute of India (SII) on Wednesday announced the prices of the Covishield vaccines. In a press release SII said that it will charge state governments at Rs 400 and private hospitals Rs 600 for one dose of its Covishield COVID-19 vaccine.
The company said 50 percent of its capacities will be served to the government of India's vaccination programme, and the remaining 50 percent of the capacity will be for the state governments and private hospitals. “For the next two months, we will address the limited capacity by scaling up the vaccine production,” it said in a statement.
The announcement has been made by SII ahead of May 1, when COVID-19 vaccine shots will be opened for everyone above 18 years.
In a significant decision to check the surge in COVID-19 cases in the country, the government on Monday announced that everyone above the age of 18 from will be eligible to take vaccine from May 1 and decided to make pricing, procurement, eligibility and administration of vaccines open and flexible. The decision was widely welcomed.
Vaccine manufacturers have been incentivized to further scale up their production, as well as attract new national and international players.
According to a Health Ministry release, the manufacturers would transparently make an advance declaration of the price for 50 per cent supply that would be available to state governments and in the open market before May 1.