Covishield vaccine to cost Rs 1,000 in private markets: SII’s Adar Poonawalla reveals

New Delhi, Jan 12: As India starts on vaccination, the Serum Institute of India CEO Adar Poonawalla on Tuesday revealed the price of Covishield in private market will be sold at Rs 1,000 per dose.

Speaking to ANI, Poonawalla said,''This is a historical moment. We've given a special price of Rs 200 for the first 100 million doses only to GoI on their request. After that we'll be selling it at Rs 1,000 in private markets.''

''To Govt of India, we'll still maintain a very reasonable price but it will be a little bit more than Rs 200 which is our cost price. So we decided not to make any profit, we wanted to support the nation & Govt of India for the first 100 million doses,'' he further said.

Pune-based vaccine major Serum Institute of India (SII) on Monday said it has received an order from the government for as many as 11 million vaccine doses of Covishield.

Poonawalla earlier announced that Covishield will be given at Rs 250 to the government.

The vaccine would be available at the price of ₹200 per dose, said officials according to news agency ANI.

According to Poonawalla, Serum's Covishield is cheaper than the vaccine developed by Pfizer-BioNTech and its transportation is also easy as compared to Pfizer's vaccine.

Covishield is developed by Oxford University and British-Swedish company AstraZeneca and manufactured by the Serum Institute of India (SII).

The vaccine programme in the country has started and the airports cargo division is gearing up to meet the demands.

Covaxin is being indigenously developed byBharatBiotechin collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) - National Institute of Virology (NIV).

On 3 January, India's drug regulator has approved emergency use authorization of the vaccine developed by Oxford University as well as another developed by Indian firm Bharat Biotech, but the government has not placed firm orders with either of the firm.

The vaccination drive against coronavirus in India will kick off on January 16, 2021.