COVID-19 Vaccines In India May Not Make It To Open Markets Soon: Here's Why
In December, Serum Institute of India's chief executive officer, Adar Poonawalla had said that his company is eying to make the Covishield vaccine available in the open market in a couple of months and had set a timeframe of March-April for it.
This means that the life-saving vaccine would be available in the market and anyone who is willing to pay for it can buy them.?
But now it appears that the plan may not be that easy as the government is yet to clear them for open markets.
According to Union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan, the two Covid-19 vaccines were given approval for restricted use.
He told The Times of India that the vaccines won't be available in the open market until the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI), approved the data sought from their manufacturers.
A market authorisation is a pre-requisite to sell the vaccines in the open market, but Bhushan said no market authorisation has been given to any of the emergency-approved vaccines currently in use in India and abroad.
Earlier this month Poonawala had said that the vaccine will be priced at double that rate in the private. "We want the vaccine to be affordable and accessible to all. The government of India will receive it at a far more affordable price of $3-4, since they will be buying in a larger volume," he said. market ones such sales open up.
However, as India is set for Phase 2 of the vaccine rollout in a couple of months, where some 270 million people above the age of 50 and those in the high-risk category will be inoculated, it is unlikely that the government will be keen on making the vaccine available in the open market around the same time that could disrupt the supply chain.
Similarly, Bharat Biotech's Covaxin was given clearance even before it completed phase-3 clinical trials.
However, on Friday the Lancet Infectious Diseases said the vaccine produced tolerable safety outcomes and enhanced immune responses in its Phase 1 trials.
With this, Covaxin has become the first Covid-19 vaccine from India to have its data published in Lancet, said Suchitra Ella, joint managing director of Bharat Biotech.
