Serum Institute of India, the world¡¯s largest vaccine producer by volume, is close to signing a supply contract with the Indian government and is expected to fix the price at Rs 250 per dose of the vaccine, according to a Reuters report citing Business Standard.
The government is pinning its hopes for mass supply on Serum Institute, which lodged the first formal application for emergency-use approval of AstraZeneca¡¯s shot.
Chief Executive Officer Adar Poonawalla had earlier said the vaccine would be priced at 1,000 rupees ($13.55) per dose in India¡¯s private market, but governments signing large supply deals would likely buy it at lower prices.
Poonawalla had said Serum will first focus on supplying the vaccine to Indians before distributing it to other countries.
India is only second to the United States and currently has 9.70 million total COVID-19 caseload. The country is accelerating its review of vaccines developed by Pfizer Inc and AstraZeneca to authorise for emergency use.
India is expecting four COVID-19 vaccines, out of which at least two are expected to be available by early next year and the remaining two in a couple of months.
Oxford-AstraZeneca's Covishield and Bharat Biotech's Covaxin are expected to arrive by January and around four vaccines by the end of April.
The supply of these four vaccines is expected to inoculate close to 30 crore people on priority population by July.