NEW DELHI: Facing criticism on the high price of Covaxin in private hospitals, Bharat Biotech on Tuesday defended the costs saying that the price of Rs 150 per dose to the Centre is “non-competitive and not sustainable in the long run.”
Covaxin, the country’s first and only indigenously developed Covid-19 vaccine, has kept its price at Rs 1200 per dose to private hospitals.
Adding Rs 150 per dose as administrative charges, fixed by the government for coronavirus vaccine in private hospitals and GST, this vaccine is slated to cost Rs 1470 per dose in non-government vaccination centres from June 21 when the new vaccine policy regime comes into force.
The price for Covaxin will be higher than Covishield and Sputnik V in private hospitals while all the vaccines will be provided free of cost in government hospitals.
As of now too, people are paying Rs 1250 -Rs 1800 for a dose of Covaxin in private hospitals.
“The supply price of Covaxin to the government of India at Rs 150 / dose, is a non-competitive price and clearly not sustainable in the long run. Hence a higher price in private markets is required to offset part of the costs,” the company said in a statement.
There are examples of such pricing policies where HPV virus vaccine is priced for GAVI supplies around Rs 320 but is also available in the private market at nearly Rs 3500 er dose and rotavirus vaccines are supplied to the government at Rs 60 per dose, but is also available in the private market at Rs 1700 per dose, the company said.
The prices for Covid-19 vaccines internationally have varied between Rs 730 – Rs 2700 per dose, the statement highlighted.
The firm said that private procurement is only discretionary and unlike most medicines and therapeutics, vaccines are provided free of cost by the government to all eligible Indian citizens.
Thus, the procurement of vaccines by private hospitals is optional and not mandatory, albeit it gives a choice to citizens who are willing to pay for better convenience, it said.
“In our view, the question of product pricing is only of extraneous interest to all concerned, especially when the same vaccine is made available free of cost,” said Bharat Biotech.
The Hyderabad-based vaccine maker also clarified that vaccine pricing depends on numerous factors including the cost of goods & raw materials, product failures, at risk product development outlays, product overages, the entire capital expenditure for setting up sufficient manufacturing facilities, sales and distribution expenses, procurement volumes and commitments besides other regular business expenditures.
It said that the whole-virion inactivated vero cell vaccines, such as Covaxin, are highly complex to manufacture since the critical ingredient is based on live viruses which require highly sophisticated, multiple level containment and purification methods.
Such high standards of purification automatically lead to significant process losses and low yields save the outcome of a highly purified and safe vaccine, said the company.
Bharat Biotech said that as directed by the Centre, less than 10% of Covaxin so far has been supplied to private hospitals but going forward, in days ahead, 75% of the capacity will be supplied to state and Union governments with only 25% going to private hospitals.
It also said that Bharat Biotech has so far invested over Rs 500 crores at risk from its own resources for product development, clinical trials and setting up of manufacturing facilities for the vaccine. The support from ICMR was with respect to the provision of the SARS CoV2 virus, animal studies, virus characterization, test kits and partial funding for clinical trial sites.
“In return for this valuable support, Bharat Biotech will pay royalties to ICMR and the National Institute of Virology based on product sales,” read the statement.