A higher price in private markets is required to offset part of the costs, says vaccine makerCovaxin maker Bharat Biotech has said the ₹150 per dose price at which the vaccine is being supplied to the Centre is a non-competitive price and “clearly not sustainable in the long run”. Separately, the Centre had also said private hospitals cannot charge more ₹1,410 for the vaccine. “In such a scenario the weighted average price of Covaxin for all supplies realised by Bharat Biotech is less than ₹250 per dose. Also read: Bharat Biotech cuts vaccine price for States to ₹400/dose“The support from the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) was with respect to provision of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, animal studies, virus characterisation, test kits and partial funding for clinical trial sites. In return for this valuable support, Bharat Biotech will pay royalties to the ICMR and the National Institute of Virology (NIV), based on product sales.

Source: The Hindu June 15, 2021 09:23 UTC