In order to ramp up thespeed of Covid-19 vaccination drive amid the hard times, Adar Poonawalla, CEOof Serum Institute of India has announced Rs 100 slash in vaccine price for theStates.
Now states will have topay Rs 300 instead of Rs 400 per dose to get the Covid-19 vaccine developed bySII in collaboration with the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca.
However, the decisionhas come few days after Bharat Biotech decided to cap the price of Covaxin forthe states at Rs 600 so the vast majority of masses can be inoculated againstthe contagious virus.
According to Poonawalla,the decision is a philanthropic gesture on behalf of SII and the new price willcome into effect immediately. He further added that his decision would helpsave thousands of crores of state funds and will enable more vaccinations thus,more lives can be saved.
Pertinently, SII is theworld’s largest vaccine maker and has obtained orders for 340 million dosesfrom states and 20 million doses from India’s private hospitals. Also, the SIIis clearing the outstanding orders from the various state governments.
According to the sourceswithin SII, the vaccine maker is planning to begin doses supply in the nextfour days. States including Maharashtra is among the one which would receivethe doses latest by this week. However, the states that have placed theirorders will have to wait for some 3 weeks.