Covishield priced at Rs 400 for States, Rs 600 for private hospitals

SII also said that will sell the Covishield vaccine to private hospitals for Rs 600. They added its vaccines will still be more affordable than foreign jabs, which cost anywhere from Rs 750 to Rs 1,500 a shot.

As part of the government's new policy, 50 per cent of the vaccine doses will be reserved for the centre and the rest will be divided between states and private hospitals which means it will be cheapest to get a vaccine shot from central government hospitals or establishments.

The pharma company said that the company will serve 50 per cent of the total production to the Government of India's vaccination program, and the remaining 50 per cent of the capacity will be for the State governments and private hospitals.

SII also said that supplying the vaccine independently to corporates would be challenging. "Owing to the complexity, and urgency of the situation it is challenging to supply it independently to each corporate entity. We would urge all corporate and private individuals to access the vaccines through the state facilities machinery and private health systems. Post 45 months the vaccines will be made available in retail and free trade," said Adar Poonawalla, CEO of SII.

The central government has recently approved a payment of about Rs 4,500 crore as advance to vaccine makers like Serum Institute of India (SII) and Bharat Biotech to boost production capacity as infections spike at record speed.