Bharat Biotech, manufacturer of Covaxin, on Thursdayhas reduced the price per dose for state governments to Rs 400 from Rs 600. Thedecision from the Hyderabad-based vaccine manufacturer comes a day after SerumInstitute of India slashed the vaccine price for states and capped it at Rs 300per dose amid the worrisome situation of the second Covid wave in the nation.
BharatBiotech on Thursday issued a statement, “The vaccine manufacturer is deeplyconcerned with the critical pandemic circumstances in the country at this time.Recognizing the enormous challengesto the public health care system, we have mode Covaxin available to stategovernments at a price of Rs. 400/dose.”
"We wish to be transparent inour approach to pricing, which was determined by internally funded productdevelopment, several operationally-intensive BSL-3 manufacturing facilities(the first of its kind in our country) and clinical trials," the statementadded.
Notably, the company has only slashedthe price for the state governments and has kept the same price for privatehospitals i.e. Rs 1200 per dose. Also, the SII kept the same procurement pricefor the private hospitals at Rs 600 per dose.
Earlier on April 25, Bharat Biotechhad announced the Cowaxin procurement price for the private hospitals andstates at Rs 1200 and Rs 600 respectively.
A rationale behind slashing theprice is that the Centre had asked both vaccine manufacturers to explore thepossibility to drop the price so a vast proportion of the population could be inoculated in the least possible time.
Cowaxin has been developed by BharatBiotech in collaboration with the National Institute of Virology and the IndianCouncil of Medical Research. The vaccine was initially launched on January 3 touse in an emergency.