Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: The price of Covishield vaccine, which Serum Institute of India (SII) has fixed at Rs. 600 per dose for private hospitals, maybe the highest in the world, despite the fact that the Pune-based major is not its developer but only a licensed contract manufacturer of the inoculation co-developed by the University of Oxford and the Swiss-British pharmaceutical major AstraZeneca (AZ).
On Saturday, India started online registration of the people in the age group of 18 years and above the next phase of vaccination from May 1. Nearly, nearly 90 crore people will be vaccinated in the country in the coming months.
SII’s vaccine, Covishield, is being largely used across India during the ongoing vaccination drive since January 14, as its alternative, Covaxin, indigenously developed by Bharat Biotech, has limited production at present.
Compare the Covishield vaccination prices in India and other countries. At a price of Rs.600 in India, it will be USD 8 per dose, followed by Saudi Arabia and South Africa (USD 5.25 each), the US and Bangladesh (USD 4 each), Brazil (USD 3.15), the UK (USD 3) and the EU (USD 2.15 to USD 3.50). These governments have bought vaccines at these price levels and vaccinating their people for free.
Clearly, SII, which has sold Covishield to over 60 countries, stands to gain enormous profit.
However, SII has defended the new prices, saying that these were still lower and affordable than other foreign-made vaccines like American jabs (Rs.1,500 per dose) and Russian and Chinese vaccines (Rs.750 per dose each).
Even at the price of Rs.150 per dose, SII was actually making a profit, media reports, quoting its CEO Adar Poonawala, said on Saturday.
Now, by paying Rs. 600 per dose at private hospitals for inoculation with Covishield from May 1, Indians will actually be paying the highest price in the world for this vaccine.
At one stage, according to reports, Poonawalla had even talked of the Rs 1,000 per dose (USD 13) rate after the first shipment went out, saying “We have given a special price of Rs 200 for the first 100 million doses only to the Government of India… and, after that, we will be selling at Rs 1,000 in private markets.” Later, the price for India was brought down from Rs.200 to Rs.150 per dose.
SII’s newest price tag, Rs, 600 per dose (USD 8) has come at a time India is in the grip of a fierce second wave of Covid-19 and recorded the world’s highest infections on a daily basis this month. Along with the highest infections they are suffering with, the Indians, therefore, could end up paying the highest vaccination prices in the world.
Even those getting vaccinated at state government hospitals will be paying nearly Rs. 400 (or over USD 5.30) per dose if their state governments fail to absorb the costs of procuring fresh doses.
Interestingly, the new Covishield procurement price of Rs 400 per dose, applicable to both state and Central orders, is higher than the price the governments in countries like the US, UK, and in the European Union are sourcing directly from AstraZeneca.
It is also higher than the price agreed by countries such as Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia, and South Africa for supplies of the vaccine from SII. In most of these countries, the shots are being administered for free, with the governments absorbing the costs.
The Government of India had made an “advance payment” of Rs.3,000 crore a few weeks ago to SII. Its large portion, Poonawala said, would be against supplying an order of 110 million doses to the government at the rate of Rs.150 per dose. But any fresh orders from the government would entail a bill of Rs 400 a dose.
The 27-nation EU, which invested USD 399 million “at-risk” in AstraZeneca in August 2020 in return for 400 million doses of Covishield, is paying between USD 2.15 and USD 3.50 per shot of the vaccine.
The UK, which had also made an investment commitment, is paying about USD 3 per dose, and the US has been offered the vaccine at USD 4 per dose, according to the British Medical Journal. Both the US and the UK are paying the amount directly to AstraZeneca.
Brazil is reportedly paying USD 3.15 per dose for vaccine through state-owned Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz), another licensed producer. On the other hand, Bangladesh is paying an average of USD 4 per dose supplied by SII.
Both South Africa and Saudi Arabia paid SII over USD 5.25 per dose, according to UNICEF’s Covid Vaccine Market Dashboard, which collects publicly reported price information. This is higher than the price at which Indians will get vaccinated at state government hospitals, without subsidy.
The government had initially negotiated the cost of Covishield to Rs 150 plus GST, or around USD 2.02, per dose. But, Poonawalla had clarified that the firm’s subsidized rate of Rs 150 per dose to the government was only for a “limited” period of time.
According to media reports, he had also said that SII will be losing money. He said: “50 percent of my revenue has to be given to AstraZeneca as a royalty and that is why the price at Rs 150 was really, really just not making sense.”
He claimed that Covishield’s price to India is now higher than in other countries is also because their prices were negotiated “a long time ago” for limited quantities when there was uncertainty about its success.
