Serum Institute of India (SII) CEO AdarPoonawalla on Tuesday said that its Covovax - Covid vaccine for children will be sold for same price of Rs 225 for the private market if its taken in government's vaccination program.
An expert panel of the India's central drugs control authority yesterday sought more data from the SII on its emergency use authorisation application for administering its COVID-19 vaccine in 7-11 year-olds.
Mr Poonawalla said, Covovax has been approved by DCGI and we're waiting for GoI to allow us to put it on CoWIN app to make it available to everyone.
"Covovax will be used for children. It has been approved by DCGI & we're waiting for GoI to allow us to put it on CoWIN app to make it available to everyone. If it's taken in the govt program also then we'll charge the same price of Rs 225 even for the pvt market," Adar Poonawalla was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.
"We reduced the price (of vaccine doses at pvt hospitals) to make it more accessible to every person who wants to take it. We are charging Rs 225 & the hospitals charge an administration fee of another Rs 150 so that is substantially less than Rs 800-900," the SII CEO added.
The SII had last month submitted an application to the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) seeking emergency use authorisation (EUA) for Covovax's use among children in the age group.
India's drug regulator had approved on December 28 Covovax for restricted use in emergency situations in adults, and on March 9 it was approved for 12-17 age group subject to certain conditions.
The countrywide vaccination drive was rolled out on January 16 last year with healthcare workers getting inoculated in the first phase.
Vaccination of frontline workers started from February 2 last year. The next phase of COVID-19 vaccination commenced on March 1 last year for people over 60 years of age and those aged 45 and above with specified co-morbid conditions.
India launched vaccination for all people aged more than 45 years from April 1 last year.
The government then decided to expand its vaccination drive by allowing everyone above 18 years of age to be inoculated against the viral disease from May 1 last year. The next phase of vaccination commenced from January 3 for adolescents in the age group of 15-18 years. India began administering precaution doses of vaccines to healthcare and frontline workers and those aged 60 and above with comorbidities from January 10.
India began administering precaution dose of COVID-19 vaccines to all aged above 18 years at private vaccination centres from April 10.
