Bharat Biotech vaccine may cost less than Serum's; govt working on pricing

Ahead of the massive inoculation drive starting next week, the government is engaged with the vaccine makers to discuss their final pricing, according to people in the know. They indicated that Hyderabad-based player Bharat Biotech could price its indigenous candidate Covaxin lower than Covishield—the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine manufactured by Serum Institute of India.

The final contract is expected to be signed soon. Pricing took time as the government tried to get the best deal possible for the initial roll out. "Bharat Biotech is likely to price its vaccine very competitively and lower than its competitor. Historically too, the firm has quoted competitive prices to supply in India," said a source.

Bharat Biotech did not respond till the time of going to press. And Serum Institute did not comment on whether it was willing to bring down the prices from Rs 200 per dose for the Indian government.

Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin is yet to complete the phase 3 clinical trials and generate efficacy data. "Right now the vaccine has been allowed a roll out in clinical trial mode which means that receivers will have to give consent before getting a jab and they would be followed up regularly. The prices would thus be low," another source  said. Bharat Biotech will have efficacy data around March.

Pune's Serum Institute of India, the world's largest vaccine maker by volume, has said it would price its Covishield--developed by University of Oxford and British drug major AstraZeneca--at Rs 200 per dose for the first 100 million doses it supplies to the government. For the private market, where the vaccine would be subsequently available, it could be priced at Rs 1,000 a dose, according to         Serum Institute CEO Adar Poonawalla. Without giving out a figure, Bharat Biotech CMD Krishna Ella recently said pricing would be a factor of volumes and that  eventually market competition would bring the prices down.

Both Covaxin and Covishield are two-shot vaccines. With the government planning to vaccinate 300-350 million people in India in the initial phase, it’s looking at procuring at least 600-700 million doses for the national immunisation drive.

The government has been trying to ensure enough doses for the first phase before allowing these firms to meet their international commitments. "One of the primary reasons why an indigenous vaccine was also approved along with AstraZeneca's was that the Centre wanted to have more options both in terms of coverage (the drug regulator has said Covaxin may help in the mutated UK strain of Sars-CoV-2 virus), and also pricing. This is why the signing of supply agreements is taking a while," said a source in the know.

Between them, the two companies have nearly 70 million doses ready in their plants that can be immediately given for the national vaccination drive.

Serum Institute would also have to supply for its international commitments like Covax to AstraZeneca etc. The restricted emergency use licence that it has does not allow it to sell the product in the private market, be it in India or abroad. However, it can supply to any country's national immunisation programme. Meanwhile, Bharat Biotech too has indicated that around 12 countries have expressed interest in Covaxin. According to reports, Brazil has already evinced interest in both Covaxin and Covishield.

Serum Institute is likely to start supplies to countries like Bangladesh soon.

It has a contract to supply 200 million doses to international agencies like Gavi at $3 per dose (Rs 250 or so) as it received $300 million in risk funding.

Bharat Biotech has in the past developed affordable vaccines like its $1 rotavirus vaccine Rotavac. During its launch, Ella had said the company would supply Rotavac at $1 to governments in low-income countries. The vaccine, launched in 2015, soon made way to India's national immunisation programme (in 2016).

For its Typbar TCV vaccine for typhoid fever, the company had launched it at $1.5 per dose for procurement for Gavi supported countries. It announced a further price reduction to around $1 or below per dose for low and medium income  countries after 100 million doses were procured.