Covishield priced at Rs 400 for States; Rs 600 for pvt hospitals
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New Delhi:The Serum Institute of India (SII),an Indian biotechnology and pharmaceuticals company, on Wednesday has revealed that Covishield will be sold to the state governments at Rs 400 per dose and to private hospitals at Rs 600 per dose.
The decision was taken in a statement issued by the pharma company after a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, along with other pharma companies, doctors, Cabinet ministers in charge of health, drugs and officials spanning multiple nodal ministries.
The government has decided to allow vaccination of all persons above the age of 18 from May 1.
Serum chief, Adar Poonawalla welcomed Modi's decision to fasten vaccination drive and ensuured that vaccines will be made available to Indians at the most affordable price in comparison to vaccines around the world.
"The promising directives will help to scale up vaccine production, and allow state governments, private hospitals, and vaccination centers to procure vaccines directly," Poonawalla said.He also promisseed to address the issue of vaccine unavailability by scaling up the vaccine production, in the next two months.
"Going ahead, 50 per cent of our capacities will be served to the Government of India's vaccination programme, and the remaining 50 per cent of of the capacity will be for the State governments and private hospitals," the company said.
In the next four to five months, the vaccines will be made available in retail and free trade.