Pune-based Serum Institute, which is credited with affordable and innovative therapies like pneumonia and dengue vaccines, plans to price the COVID-19 vaccine at Rs 1,000 per dose in India, reported Times of India.
Serum is one of the global manufacturers that is putting its weight behind an Oxford University-led consortium, which announced the start of human clinical trials on April 23 and is one of the first such projects to get underway globally.
"We hope to start trials in India in May, with a few hundred patients, and expect to roll out the vaccine by September-October, if the trials are successful," Serum Institute CEO and promoter Adar Poonawalla said, adding that the institute is planning to make the vaccine available at around Rs 1,000.
The pricing in India is expected to be substantially lower than the global one as in cases of other vaccines like MMR, (measles, mumps, and rubella), which are available at over 10 times the India price in countries like the United Kingdom.
"We will start production in India after trials get over in September in the UK. We aim to manufacture four to five million doses per month for the first six months, following which, we might scale up to 20-40 million doses by September-October. If successful, we will make the product available in as many countries as possible," Poonawalla added.
The vaccine will be manufactured at Serum's existing facility in Pune.