Covishield Will Be Rs 400 for State Govts, Rs 600 in Private Hospitals: Serum Institute

New Delhi: The Serum Institute of India (SII) announced on Wednesday that its Covishield vaccine candidate would be sold at a price of Rs 600 per dose to private hospitals and Rs 400 per dose to state governments.

The announcement comes two days after the Centre liberalised India's vaccination drive against COVID-19, allowing state governments to directly approach manufacturers to procure doses and allowing anybody over the age of 18 to get vaccinated from May 1.

In a statement posted on its Twitter handle, the Pune-based SII said it will address its limited capacity by scaling up the vaccine production over the next two months.

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT pic.twitter.com/bTsMs8AKth

— SerumInstituteIndia (@SerumInstIndia) April 21, 2021

"Going ahead, 50% of our capacities will be served to the Government of India's vaccination programme, and the remaining 50% of the capacity will be for the state governments and private hospitals," it said.

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The statement added that the vaccine doses will not be available in retail and free trade for another four or five months.

"Furthermore, owing to the complexity, and urgency of the situation it is challenging to supply [doses] independently to each corporate entity. We would urge all corporates and private individuals to access the vaccines through the state facilitated machinery and private health systems. Post 4-5 months, the vaccines will be made available in retail and free trade," the statement adds.

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