Corona vaccine price: Serum Institute of India releases price list for private and state governments

Serum Institute of India (SII) on April 21 said it is going to price Covishield at Rs 400 a dose for state governments and Rs 600 a dose for private hospitals.

“For the next two months, we will address the limited capacity by scaling up the vaccine production. Going ahead, 50% of our capacities will be served to the Government of India’s vaccination program, and the remaining 50% of the capacity will be for the State governments and private hospitals,” said Adar Poonawala, CEO, Serum Institute of India.

He said its vaccines are the cheapest compared to all other vaccines.

“The “American vaccines” (by Pfizer & Moderna) which are estimated to be Rs 1500 per dose, Sputnik V that is priced at Rs 750 per dose. Post 4-5 months, the vaccines will be made available in retail and free trade,” he said.

Vaccination drive

On April 19, the vaccination drive was opened to everyone above 18.

The government is desperately trying to speed up the process of inoculation. Though India accounts for the second highest infections in the world just after the US, just more than 1% of its population has received both jabs of the vaccine compared to 25% in the US.

India’s healthcare infrastructure is under great stress to handle more than 2 lakh fresh infections and about 1,300 death bring reported every day.

Apart from Serum Institute of India, Bharat Biotech is also manufacturing COVID vaccines.