Vaccine to cost Rs 1000/vial in pvt mkt: Adar

Vaccine to cost Rs 1000/vial in pvt mkt: Adar

Adar Poonawalla, CEO and Owner, Serum Institute of India on the momentous victory of being able to roll out the Covid-19 vaccine in record time.

“This is a historical moment that the vaccine is being dispatched from our factory. Our main challenge is to bring it to everyone in the country. It is our challenge for 2021, let’s see how it happens.

“We’ve given a special price of Rs 200 for the first 100 mn doses only to Government of India on their request, that we want to support the common man, the vulnerable, the poor and healthcare workers. After that we’ll be selling it at Rs 1000 in the private market. To the Govt of India, we’ll still maintain a very reasonable price but it will be a little bit more than Rs 200 which is our cost price. So we decided not to make any profit, we wanted to support the nation and the Govt of India for the first 100 million doses.

“A lot of countries have been writing to India and PMO for vaccines to be supplied from Serum Institute to their countries. We’re trying to keep everyone happy. We’ve to take care of our population and nation as well. We’re trying to supply vaccine to Africa, South America. So we’re doing a little bit everywhere. So we’ll try to keep everyone happy.

“We make 70-80 million doses every month. Planning is underway to see how many will be given to India and foreign countries. Health Ministry has made logistics plans. We also have partnership with pvt players for trucks, vans and cold storage.”

https://news.rediff.com/commentary/2021/jan/12/...