While richer, developed economies have mostly avoided pricing disputes in their roll-outs so far, the issue of how much inoculations should cost amid a pandemic that’s killing more than 10,000 people each day globally is likely to loom larger as distribution extends to the developing world.
For Prime Minister Narendra Modi, each cent spent on the price of a vaccine in a nation home to more than 1.3 billion people will have serious financial consequences for his administration.
“When you are buying in bulk, there is obviously the advantage of being able to negotiate the price,” Randeep Guleria, a member of Modi’s taskforce for Covid-19 management and the director of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, said in an interview on Monday. He added that negotiations are ongoing under the procurement policy and “obviously they may also be able to decide on what should be the market price subsequently.”
While distribution in other nations started soon after approval with pricing deals signed ahead of time, New Delhi and Serum Institute have engaged in months of haggling behind closed doors and are yet to sign a formal supply agreement. That has left at least 70 million vaccine doses in limbo.