Pune based Serum Institute of India (SII) said it would sell the Covishield at ₹ 400 a dose and to private hospitals at ₹ 600.
“Furthermore, owing to the complexity, and urgency of the situation it is challenging to supply it independently to each corporate entity,” SII said in a statement.
IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT pic.twitter.com/bTsMs8AKth
— SerumInstituteIndia (@SerumInstIndia) April 21, 2021
“We would urge all corporate and private individuals to access the vaccines through the state facilitated machinery and private health systems,” the state added.
“For the next few months, we will address the limited capacity by scaling up the vaccine production. Going ahead, 50 percent of our capacities will be served to the government of India’s vaccination program, and the remaining fifty of the capacity will be for the state governments and private hospitals,” the statement said.
The announcement of price is made following the Centre’s decision to decentralize the vaccine purchase and procurement while allowing everyone above the age of 18 years to get inoculated against the surging covid-19 across India.
To dismiss the charge that the prices are on the higher side, the SII compared the prices with the prices in the US and Russia. According to the SII, a dose of vaccine costs Rs 1500 in the US, while the Russian vaccine is priced at more than Rs 750. The price of Chinese vaccines is also fixed at around Rs 750 a dose, the SII said.