Covid-19 vaccination: Govt books 440 million doses with 30% advance

250 mn Covishield and 190 mn Covaxin doses meant for Aug-Dec period

The Centre has placed advance orders for 250 million Covishield and 190 million Covaxin doses to be supplied between August and December, V K Paul, member-health, Niti Aayog, said on Tuesday. He pointed out that 30 per cent advance payment for these doses had already been given to the vaccine makers--Serum Institute of India and Bharat Biotech. 

The government has not disclosed the amount paid as advance for these orders. However, industry sources indicated that vaccine makers are likely to re-negotiate the price with the government. Till now, the Centre has been procuring vaccine at Rs 150 per dose. “Renegotiations on pricing are likely for two reasons. One, exports are not happening at the moment and second, the 25 per cent supply to states at a higher price has now been stopped,” said a senior executive at a vaccine firm.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced on Monday that the vaccine procurement would be centralised again. After states expressed their inability to procure vaccines from global companies, the Centre reviewed the policy.  

The schedule of month-wise supply of the doses, that have been ordered, is yet to be firmed up by the companies. “We have requested the companies to provide us with the availability schedule. The government is working hard on multiple fronts to ensure vaccines for the people,’’ Paul said. 

According to a May 13 statement by the Health Ministry, around 276 million doses of Covishield were ordered, the supply of which was expected by July. The government had said on May 3, that around 110 million doses were to be received from Serum Institute of India (SII), which makes Covishield-- developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University.

Serum Institute CEO Adar Poonawalla had indicated last month that more than 200 million doses had been delivered cumulatively to the Indian government.

Sources indicated that in May, more than 30 million doses were supplied to the Centre.  In June, another 60 million doses are expected to come into the system. This is in sync with the vaccine makers stepping up production. Last month, SII produced roughly 70 million doses, and around half of that was supplied to the Centre. In June, the company aims to produce about 90 million doses, and the Centre will procure 75 per cent of this production under the revised policy. By July, the production will touch 100 million doses a month, according to the ramp up plan.

Meanwhile, the Centre has pressed the pedal on placing advance orders for Covid-19 vaccines.

The government had recently placed advance orders for 300 million doses of Biological E with a payment of Rs 1,500 crore. The price at which the advance order of the Biological E vaccine was placed has not been revealed.

Paul said that the price negotiations would be done under the new system. “The help has been provided as it will meet part of the price...It is a partial support given on an urgent basis. The provisionary data was very promising,’’ he added.

The government is expecting sufficient supply of vaccines from August-September onwards. “We will have to increase the speed of vaccination to absorb the supply and cover the adult population,” Paul said. 

Data shows that August onwards, the government has secured 740 million doses of vaccines by placing order with several manufacturers. Till July, the government had secured 516 million doses.

The Centre expects vaccine production or availability to touch 2.1 6 billion doses between August and December, enough to vaccinate the entire adult population of the country. The government recently said it would be able to give up to 10 million jabs a day by mid-July or early August. So far, the pace of vaccination has peaked at a little above 3 million jabs a day in the country.

Of the 2.16 billion doses availability that the health ministry has indicated, around 750 million would be Covishield. Poonawalla  indicated earlier that by the year-end, he expected to start supplies to Covax and other countries. That would mean some of the 750 million doses could be exported between August and December.

“The government is focusing on strengthening research and development, enabling manufacturing and ensuring adequate availability of vaccines as priority,” Paul said.

The health ministry is supporting the development of more than five Covid-19 vaccine candidates. Some of these are now closer to introduction in the public health system.

Covishield at Rs 780, Covaxin at Rs 1,410 in pvt hospitals

The government has directed private hospitals not to charge more than Rs 780 for a dose of Covishield, Rs 1,410 for Covaxin, and Rs 1,145 for Sputnik V. This includes the maximum service charge of Rs 150. The CoWIN system would also ensure that the prices declared by various private vaccination centres do not exceed the maximum price. The maximum amount for each vaccine has been worked out on the basis of the price declared by their manufacturers, the health ministry said.

Vaccine spend may go up by 40%: Govt estimates

The total expenditure on the vaccination drive under the new centralised policy may go up by 40 per cent, according to the finance ministry estimates. Sources in the ministry said Finance Secretary T V Somanathan had a discussion with Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan on the initial assessment of budgetary allocation of Rs 35,000 crore for vaccines. “...the fresh estimates say it could go up to Rs 45,000-50,000 crore,” said a government source.