The Serum Institute of India is manufacturing Oxford-AstraVeneca vaccine as Covishield. The company says it has 50 million doses ready to roll-out.
The Serum Institute of India’s chief Adar Poonawalla has said that Covishield, it’s vaccine candidate which recently got approval from drug regulator, will be commercially available at ₹ 1,000 per dose if the government allows sale in retail.
“We are giving it a very special price of ₹ 200 for the first hundred million doses. Then there will be tendering and then different prices will be available,” the Pune-based company’s CEO told NDTV.
“But let me just say — whatever we give to the government, they are going to provide it free to the people of India and when we subsequently sell it in the private market, the MRP is going to be ₹ 1,000 per shot,” he added.
The Serum Institute of India is manufacturing Oxford-AstraVeneca vaccine as Covishield. The company says it has 50 million doses ready to roll-out.
“We are expecting all formalities to be completed in the next 7 to 10 days and a very quick rollout after that and we’re hoping to reach 70-80 million doses of actual supply in the next one month – or maybe a month and a half at the most,” Mr Poonawalla told NDTV.
It could double its monthly output by March, but the vaccine’s availability in the private market will depend on the government easing its restrictions, the company said.
“We’ll have to go by their (the government’s) guidance and wisdom because they have said that we cannot export the vaccine or give it to the private market. These have been our discussions at the movement and I respect that because they want to give it to the vulnerable people,”
Poonawalla said that this means “any common citizen today who wants to buy it or get access to it or a corporate who wants to vaccinate their entire workforce to bring them back safely to work can’t do so until the government has got enough doses to vaccinate the vulnerable, healthcare workers, the elderly, etc”.
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