Serum Institute Of India To Roll Out COVID-19 Vaccine By April At Rs 1,000 For All

The year 2020 has been completely taken over by COVID-19. Since the very beginning this pandemic-causing coronavirus has wreaked havoc on our lives.

The whole year as we¡¯ve been battling the rise of COVID-19 cases, we¡¯ve been desperately hoping for the vaccines that would take down the novel coronavirus.

Twitter: Adar Poonawala

And as the year is ending, we¡¯re seeing top vaccine contenders like Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna showing over 90 percent effectiveness. And amidst all this, Serum Institute of India, the authorised manufacturer of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine has revealed that the vaccine is expected to come out by February for a price tag of Rs 1,000.

Reported first by PTI, Adar Poonawala, CEO of Serum India Institute revealed this while speaking at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit. He also feels that by 2024, every Indian will have been vaccinated, "It will probably take two or three years for every Indian to get inoculated, not just because of the supply constraints but because you need the budget, the vaccine, logistics, infrastructure and then, people should be willing to take the vaccine. So these are the factors that lead up to being able to vaccinate 80-90 per cent of the population. It will be 2024 for everybody, if willing to take a two-dose vaccine, to be vaccinated."

Poonawala has revealed that the vaccine will be priced around $3 to $4 (which is around Rs 280) per dose, however, it will come with an MRP of Rs 1,000 for the two necessary doses. "The government of India will be getting it at a far cheaper price at around USD 3-4, because it will be buying in a large volume and get access to the price that is similar to what COVAX has got. We are still pricing it far cheaper and more affordable than other vaccines we have in the market today."

Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine effectiveness

While Oxford-AstraZeneca hasn¡¯t really revealed how effective their vaccine truly is, Poonawala has revealed that the vaccine develops a good immune response, especially in older individuals, "It has induced a good T-cell response, which is an indicator for your long-term immunity and antibody response but then again, time will only tell if these vaccines are going to protect you in the long term. Nobody can answer that for any of the vaccines today.¡±

Poonawala also stated that the vaccine could be applied for emergency-use authorisation with the drug controller of India after it receives approval from the authorities in the UK and European Medicines Evaluation Agency. This will be limited for use with frontline workers, healthcare workers and elderly individuals though.

SII

Number of doses available in India

He also revealed that SII is expected to produce 10 crore doses by February. However the number of doses to be provided to India from that batch still remains undecided, "India wants around 400 million doses by July. I do not know if it will take all from the Serum Institute. We are gearing up to offer that kind of volume to India and still have a few 100 million to offer to COVAX by July and August. No agreement so far."

He also revealed that for now, India is going to be its priority and it doesn¡¯t plan on teaming up with other nations, "We have not signed and committed anything else beyond Bangladesh at the moment. We really do not want to partner right now with many countries because we will not have enough stocks to deliver. We want to handle India as a priority first and manage Africa at the same time and then help out other countries," he said.