As India continues to fight COVID-19, last month the central government had given a green signal to Russia's Sputnik V vaccine. In addition to Bharat Biotech's Covaxin and Oxford-AstraZeneca's Covishield; India now has Russia's Sputnik V available too. As per media reports, the vaccine will be available in the market from next week. However, this vaccine will be slightly more expensive than the existing vaccines. A single dose of Sputnik-V will be priced at around Rs 995.
Notably, the first dose of Sputnik V was administered in Hyderabad on Friday as part of a small pilot, according to Dr. Reddy's Laboratories, an Indian partner of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF). Dr. Reddy's Lab also mentioned that the imported vaccine is priced at Rs 948 per dose, plus a 5% GST, bringing the total price to about Rs 995.40, just under Rs 1000 per dose.
How much do other vaccines cost?
The Serum Institute of India has fixed the price of one dose of vaccine for states and private hospitals, according to which a dose of Covishield will be available for Rs 600 in a private hospital. At the same time, Bharat Biotech is also providing only Rs 400 per dose to the state governments.
Sputnik-V production in the country from July: Centre
Regarding the Sputnik-V vaccine, the government says that 30 lakh more Sputnik-V vaccine doses will reach India by the end of this month. Also, the government is in talks with five other companies apart from Reddy Laboratory to start the production of this vaccine in the country. These include Hetero Biopharma, Virchow Biotech, Stelis Biopharma, Gland pharma, and Panacea Biotec. The government is trying to get the Sputnik V vaccine manufactured in the country since July.
New cases of coronavirus infections decreased slightly on Friday, with 3,43,144 people testing positive in the last 24 hours. Moreover, there were 3,44,776 discharges, and 4,000 deaths, according to data released by the Union Health Ministry on Friday. On Thursday morning, the number of new cases stood at 3,62,727.
