India allows vaccine for all above 18 from May 1: Here's how COVID-19 vaccines are priced across the world

Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the nationwide vaccination drive on January 16, with healthcare workers at the frontline of India's COVID-19 battle getting their first jabs. (Representative image)

In a bid to tackle the second wave of the deadly coronavirus in the country, the central governmnet on April 19 announced that all adults will be eligible for COVID vaccination from May 1 while private hospitals and states will be able to buy doses directly from manufacturers.

Under the third phase of the vaccination drive commencing next month, the vaccine manufacturers would be free to supply 50 percent doses to state governments and in the open market for which they will have to make an advance declaration of the price before May 1, government said in a statement.

Amid this major development let us look at the price of top vaccine candidates developed around the world.

BNT162b2

US-based vaccine developer- Pfizer and German start-up BioNTech have priced their mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine candidate BNT162b2, at reportedly $19.50 for a single shot and two doses for $39. The vaccine doses are currently administered in countries including UK, United States, Canada, Japan among others.

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Moderna charges $30 for the required two shots in the US and $36 in the European countries.

Sputnik V

Russia became the first country in the world to register a COVID-19 vaccine, called Sputnik V on August 11, 2020. The vaccine, which received approval for distribution in Russia despite having been tested only in a small number of people in early-stage clinical trials, announced that the vaccine candidate showed around 91 percent efficacy.

Reportedly, the vaccine's cost is nearly half of that of Pfizer at around $10 for international markets. One of the cheapest vaccines in the world, Sputnik V is free for Russian citizens.

Covidshield

The Serum Institute of India (SII) collaborated with British-Swedish pharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca to develop the Covidshield vaccine. Based on the viral vector platform where a chimpanzee adenovirus named ChAdOx1 is the vector which has been modified to carry the coronavirus spike protein into human cells follow a two-dose regimen. The two doses have to be administered 28-days apart and are currently priced at Rs 200 (single dose) at private hospitals in the country.

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Covaxin

Another 'Made in India' vaccine which is currently being administered to people as part of the Centre's nationwide COVID-19 vaccination drive had been indigenously developed by Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech International Limited in collaboration with the National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune and the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). Covaxin is based on a reputable platform of dead viruses.

Just like Covidshield, the two doses of Covaxin have to be administered 28-days apart and is priced at Rs 295 for each in private hospitals.

Both COVID-19 vaccines are the cheapest vaccines in the world.