Rs 400 per dose for state govts; Rs 600 per dose for pvt hospitals: Serum

Adar Poonawalla, CEO, Serum Institute of India

Serum Institute of India's Covishield vaccine will cost private hospitals Rs 600 per dose and state governments Rs 400, a rate that will also apply to the central government procurement once the existing contract for Rs 150 a dose ends, its chief executive said on Wednesday.

"Going ahead, 50 per cent of our capacities will be served to the Government of India's vaccination program, and the remaining 50 per cent of the capacity will be for the state governments and private hospitals," the Serum Institute of India said. SII CEO Adar Poonawalla told CNBC-TV18 that the Centre will also be charged Rs 400 once the initial contract for 100 million doses ends.

‘Covaxin 78% efficient, neutralises most strains'

Bharat Biotech on Wednesday said its vaccine Covaxin has shown efficacy of 78 per cent against mild, moderate and severe cases of COVID-19 after recording 127 symptomatic cases, as per Phase III interim analysis results. Meanwhile, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) on Wednesday said that Covaxin neutralises multiple variants of SARS-CoV-2 and effectively works against the double mutant strain as well.

It noted that the second interim data of the Phase III study also showed that chances of hospitalisation due to the infectious disease were reduced by 100 per cent after taking the Covaxin shot. The efficacy against asymptomatic infection was 70 per cent.

This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever

This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever