Pfizer may lower price for its COVID-19 vaccine in india

Global pharma major Pfizer may price its vaccine lower in India than in the United Kingdom and the United States, reports say.

Recently the government said that India was not keen to procure the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine because of its high cost and the extreme cold chain requirement at -70 degree Celsius.

At $37 i.e, Rs 2,728, the coronavirus vaccine candidate developed by Pfizer is much more expensive compared to the other vaccine candidates such as Oxford-AstraZeneca ‘Covishield’ and the $10 (Rs 737) vaccine candidate developed by Russia.

Bernstein analyst had said that the cost of Pfizer vaccine candidate has to be as low as $3 (Rs 220.95) for India to procure at least 680 million doses of the vaccine which would cost the country $1.9billion. It is not sure as of now what would be the ultimate decision of Pfizer regarding the cost in India.

Responding to the concern over the temperature requirement, a senior government official pointed out that India had cold chain infrastructure, owned by the Department of Agricultural Research and Education, that would be sufficient for a vaccine like Pfizer.