Indians Will Start Getting Coronavirus Vaccine By December, Priced At Rs 500-600 Per Dose (Not Free?)

And finally, some concrete news is coming in, regarding the coronavirus vaccine for Indians.

As per statements issued by Adar Poonawalla, CEO of world’s biggest manufacturer of vaccines, Indians can start getting Covid-19 vaccine by December.

Each vaccine is expected to be priced at Rs 500-600.

Here are more details.

Vaccination To Start By December, 2020

While speaking at Hindustan Times Leadership Summit, CEOof Serum Institute of India, Adar Poonawalla informed the audience that the trial of their vaccine is going great, and going by the success rates, they are sure that vaccination will start by December.

Health workers and senior citizens can be given this vaccine by December, and for the rest of the population, vaccination can start by March-April.

Around 40 crore vaccines will be made available by the Q1 of 2021.

The involvement of private players in the distribution of vaccines holds the key.

Adar said, “As many private players will have to be brought in to partner with the government for enhanced distribution of the vaccine… we see more of that happening,” 

Rs 500-600 Per Dose?

Now, while some sections the media claim that vaccines will be free for all Indians, Adar claimed that each dose will cost around Rs 500-600.

At the same time, there has been a collaboration done between Serum, GAVI and the Gates Foundation, which promises each dose of Covid-19 vaccine to be priced at $3.

The Covid-19 vaccine manufactured by Serum is called AZD1222 or ChAdOx1 nCoV-19, which has been developed and tested by University of Oxford.

Serum has already signed a deal with AstraZeneca, a Swedish-British company to mass produce the vaccine.

As per Maheshi Ramasamy, Investigator at the Oxford Vaccine Group and Consultant Physician, the trial of this vaccine has been a roaring success.

He said, ‘We were pleased to see that our vaccine was not only well tolerated in older adults; it also stimulated similar immune responses to those seen in younger volunteers. The next step will be to see if this translates into protection from the disease itself,’ 

We will keep you updated, as more details come in.