To ramp up production of its Covishield vaccine amid alleged vaccine scarcity, the Serum Institute of India (SII) had borrowed money from banks instead of waiting for the government’s aid to arrive. Notably, government has promised a handsome sum of Rs 4,500 crore to Bharat Biotech and Serum Institute of India for the production of their vaccines Covaxin and Covishield respectively. The Union Finance Ministry has approved a sanction of Rs 3,000 crore credit for SII and Rs 1,500 crore to Bharat Biotech.
The company believed that the funding could reach them by the end of this week.
Covishield has been developed by the Oxford University and pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca, and has locally been manufactured by the Pune-based SII.
Adar Poonawalla, CEO of Serum Institute of India, earlier had suggested that the company would require around Rs 3,000 crore to increase production of Covid-19 vaccines.
Meanwhile, SII, world’s largest manufacturer of the vaccines by volume, on Wednesday announced that Covishield will be sold at Rs 400 per dose to the state government and Rs 600 to private hospitals. Meanwhile, for the Centre, the vaccine doses would still be prices at Rs 150.
The development comes after the government allowed vaccination of all persons above the age of 18 from May 1.
The decision was announced following a meeting of Prime Minister Narendra Modi with pharma companies, doctors, Cabinet ministers in charge of health, drugs and officials spanning multiple nodal ministries.
Poonawalla welcomed the government’s announcement to accelerate India’s vaccination drive.
“The promising directives will help to scale up vaccine production, and allow state governments, private hospitals,and vaccination centers to procure vaccines directly,” he said.
Going ahead, 50 percent of our capacities will be served to the Government of India’s vaccination programme, and the remaining 50 percent of of the capacity will be for the State governments and private hospitals,” he added.
“Furthermore, owing to the complexity, and urgency of the situation, it is challenging to supply independently to each corporate entity. We would urge all corporate and private individuals to access the vaccines through the state facilitated machinery and private health systems,” the company stated.
