Covishield - Coronavirus vaccination against the virus being manufactured by Serum Institute of India, Pune in collaboration with Oxford-Astrazeneca will possibly cost ₹ 200 a vial and the government may place an order today, sources from Adar Poonawalla's Serum Institute of India (SII) have said.
With expected vaccine rollout on January 16, the purchase order for Covishield vaccines will be done today.
"A few million doses of Covishield will be supplied every week. 11 million doses may be supplied in the initial lot," said sources.
The first 100 million doses are likely to cost ₹ 200 apiece.
Earlier this month, the drug regulator of India had nodded for emergency use for Serum Institute and Oxford-Astrazeneca - Covishield and Bharat Biotech’s - Covaxin.
Serum Institute sources say after January 16, the vaccine is likely to receive export clearance too.
Adar Poonawalla, CEO of Serum Institute in an interview earlier had said that the vaccine would be priced at about ₹ 1,000 rupees per dose for the private market in India and would cost the government about ₹ 250 Indian rupees ($3.40) per dose, which will require 600 million shots.
Serum, the world's largest maker of vaccines, has already produced 50 million doses for immediate distribution.
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India has placed no restrictions on exports of vaccines but a formal announcement for export clearance is yet to be made despite Brazil’s demand of 2 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine made in India.
The Oxford dose is expected to meet 90% of India's mass inoculation programme needs.