Delays Over Pricing Hold Back India s Vital Vaccine Rollout Delays Over Pricing Hold Back India s Vital Vaccine Rollout On Sunday, Serum s billionaire Chief Executive Officer Adar Poonawalla said Indian officials have orally agreed to buy 100 million doses at a special price of 200 rupees a shot, below the about $4 to $5 price tag given to the U.K. government.
A health worker opens a deep freezer during a Covid-19 vaccine dry run in Delhi, Jan. 2.
Highlights
Officials have orally agreed to buy 100 million doses at Rs 200: Serum
Over 10 million people have been affected by the virus in India
As major countries like the U.S. and China race to vaccinate their populations with rapidly approved shots, tens of millions of doses prepared for India are sitting in storage despite having been authorized for use.
Delays over pricing holds back India’s vital Covid-19 vaccine rollout
The Indian government may be looking to put pressure on Serum to lower its prices,
(REUTERS)Premium
. Updated: 06 Jan 2021, 05:44 AM IST Bloomberg
New Delhi and Serum Institute of India 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 despite the urgent need in a country facing the world’s second-largest outbreak
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As major countries like the U.S. and China race to vaccinate their populations with rapidly approved shots, tens of millions of doses prepared for India are sitting in storage despite having been authorized for use.
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.
As major countries like the U.S. and China race to vaccinate their populations with rapidly approved shots, tens of millions of doses prepared for India are sitting in storage despite having been authorized for use. While distribution in other nations started soon after approval with pricing deals signed ahead of time, New Delhi and Serum Institute of India Ltd. the world’s biggest vaccine maker by volume and AstraZeneca Plc’s local partner 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 despite the urgent need in a country facing the world’s second-largest outbreak.