Covishield: DCGI grants permission to Serum Institute of India to manufacture its COVID-19 vaccine

New Delhi, Jan 04: Drugs Controller General of India (DCGGI) on Monday granted permission to Serum Institute of India to manufacture its COVID-19 vaccine 'Covishield'.

The manufacturer of the Covishield vaccine, plans to charge a special price of ₹200 per dose for the first 100 million shots that it supplies to the government, chief executive Adar Poonawalla said.

The company plans to price the vaccine at ₹1,000 per dose in the open market, once it is allowed to do so by the government, Poonawalla said in a telephonic interview.

Poonawalla further said that Serum Institute was in the process of signing a larger contract with COVAX for 300 million-400 million doses of the vaccine.

That is apart from two existing orders of 100 million doses each for the vaccine developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca, and another one from Novovax. He said the deal would be finalized in the coming weeks.

On Sunday, Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) approved Covishield and Bharat Biotech''s Covaxin for restricted emergency use.

"Happy new year, everyone! All the risks @SerumInstIndia took with stockpiling the vaccine, have finally paid off. COVISHIELD, India''s first COVID-19 vaccine is approved, safe, effective and ready to roll-out in the coming weeks," SII CEO Adar Poonawalla said in a tweet.

The company has already stockpiled around 50 million dosages of the vaccine and aims to produce up to 100 million dosages per month by March next year.

The approval by the DCGI was given on the basis of recommendations submitted by a COVID-19 subject expert committee (SEC) of the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO).

This paves the way for the roll-out of at least two vaccines in India in the coming days.

The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine has already been approved by the UK government.