New Delhi: A day after its Covid shot ‘Covovax’ was included on the CoWIN portal for inoculation of children aged 12-17 years at private vaccination centres, the Serum Institute of India (SII) reduced Tuesday the price of each dose of the vaccine from Rs 900 to Rs 225, excluding taxes. Following recommendation of the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (NTAGI) the provision of the vaccine option was included on the portal Monday.
Director for Government and Regulatory Affairs, SII, Prakash Kumar Singh, is learnt to have communicated to the government Tuesday that the firm is reducing the price of each dose from Rs 900 to Rs 225 plus goods and services tax (GST) for private hospitals. In addition, a private hospital can charge up to Rs 150 as service charge. The price of the vaccine, Covovax, is learnt to have been revised on the CoWIN portal.
India’s drug regulator had approved Covovax for restricted use in emergency situations in adults December 28 last year and in the 12-17 age group, subject to certain conditions, March 9.
Currently, children aged 12 to 14 years are vaccinated with Biological E’s Corbevax, while those in the 15-18 age group are being administered Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin free of cost at government vaccination centres. At private centres a dose of Covaxin costs Rs 386, including GST, while Corbevax costs Rs 990.
Also read: SII seeks Covovax’s inclusion in vaccination drive for 12 years and above
SII CEO Adar Poonawalla said Tuesday that Covovax is now available for children across the country. In a post on Twitter, he said Covovax, which has been developed by Novavax, ‘is now available for children in India’. He further said, “This is the only vaccine manufactured in India that is also sold in Europe and has an efficacy of (more than) 90%.”