Serum Institute of India (SII), on Wednesday, announced a cut in price of the Covishield vaccine it plans to sell to states to Rs 300 per dose from the earlier Rs 400.
This follows widespread criticism of its pricing policy as it had sold the initial doses of Covishield to the Union government at Rs 150 per dose.
SII's CEO Adar Poonawalla took to Twitter to announce the "philanthropic" gesture.
"As a philanthropic gesture on behalf of @SerumInstIndia, I hereby reduce the price to the states from Rs 400 to Rs 300 per dose, effective immediately; this will save thousands of crores of state funds going forward. This will enable more vaccinations and save countless lives," he said.
As a philanthropic gesture on behalf of @SerumInstIndia, I hereby reduce the price to the states from Rs.400 to Rs.300 per dose, effective immediately; this will save thousands of crores of state funds going forward. This will enable more vaccinations and save countless lives.
— Adar Poonawalla (@adarpoonawalla) April 28, 2021
The different price slabs for the vaccines had come under fire from opposition parties. Even the Supreme Court, yesterday, took note of different prices of COVID-19 vaccines for Centre, states and the private hospitals and asked the Union government to explain to it the rationale and basis behind such a pricing policy.
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In the proceedings conducted through video conferencing, senior advocate and SCBA (Supreme Court Bar Association) President Vikas Singh informed the bench that there has been different price slabs for vaccines to be procured by the Centre, states and the private hospitals.
The bench referred to the powers of the Centre under the Drugs Control law to control the price of medicines and said the pandemic was perhaps the right time to invoke such powers. "This is a pandemic and a national crisis. If this is not the time to issue such powers, what is the time,” it asked.
Earlier today, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi hit out at the Centre over the "high" COVID-19 vaccine prices, saying the system has once again failed Indian citizens.
"People's money was given to vaccine companies to develop COVID vaccines. Now, GOI will make the same people pay the highest price in the world for these vaccines," he alleged on Twitter.
"Once again, the failed 'system' fails our citizens for Modi-mitrs' profit," he said.
