‘Rs 250 Still a High Cost’, Say Health Experts on Vaccine Pricing

Public health experts have mixed reactions to COVID vaccine pricing.

(Photo : iStock)

The Union Government on Saturday, February 27, announced that its citizens above the age of 60 and those above 45 and living with comorbidities will be vaccinated starting March 1.

India also became the first country in the world to provide COVID-19 vaccines at a cost at private hospitals. The price fixed is Rs 250 per dose, with the vaccine cost fixed at Rs 150, and Rs 100 is administering charge.

At Rs 150, the cost of the vaccine is lower than the price the government is purchasing at from pharma companies. As per earlier reports, the government has purchased Covishield, manufactured in India by Serum Institute, at 210 per dose, and the India-made Covaxin, manufactured by Bharat Biotech, at Rs 295 per dose.

For full vaccination, your cost will be Rs 500. The cost of fully inoculating a family of four will be Rs 2,000.

These vaccines will be available across 10,000 hospitals under Ayushman Bharat-PMJAY and 687 hospitals under CGHS can be used by States as COVID Vaccination Centres. States have also been given the freedom to use all Private Hospitals empanelled under State Government Health Insurance Schemes as CVCs.

Mixed Reactions from Public Health Experts

The announcement received a mixed reaction from public health experts with some calling it a positive move for a country as large as India.

“Private players have resources to increase vaccination rate in the 50+ population. Government capacity alone cannot cater to 270 million people in 6 months. The cost is reasonable. The government should ensure that everyone who needs the vaccine is able to access it,” said Dr Shahid Jameel, Virologist and Director, Trivedi School of Biosciences, Ashoka University.

Others have questioned the need to pass off the cost to the public.

In a comment before the pricing was revealed, Dr K Srinath Reddy, President, Public Health Foundation of India, has said that opening up Covid-19 vaccination to vulnerable persons, based on age and co-morbidities, is an essential public health measure.

“In a mixed health system, taking the support of the private sector is understandable. However, it is debatable whether that should require the citizen to pay for that channel. As pandemic control is universally acknowledged to be a public good, immunisation should be paid from public financing.”

K Srinath Reddy, President, Public Health Foundation of India

Raising concerns about possible exploitation of rules, he’d warned, “The priority lists prepared by the government should not be bypassed and queue jumping should not be permitted. The pandemic has repeatedly reminded us that we must invest in strengthening the capacity and competence of the public healthcare system. This is one more instance.”

In a long comment on Twitter, Dr Chandrakant Lahayriya, a public systems expert, and author of the book 'Till We Win: India's Fight Against COVID-19 Pandemic,' said, “Since India is embarking upon world’s largest COVID vaccination, the vaccine price should have been much lower, a few experts have opined 1/2 US$ or around Rs 40 per dose. We are far from it.”

He also raised concerns on the surveillance, reporting and management of of Adverse Events Following Immunisation (AEFI), saying government facilities have developed such systems over the years, but reporting from private sector remains low.

Malini Aisola, Co-convenor of All India Drug Action Network, welcomed the pricing decision and said that the government has done a reasonable job and has not made the mistake it did with testing, when it fixed a price with very high margins.

She said it would have been ideal if the vaccine was provided for free, but on the positive side the government was able to negotiate with the pharma companies to bring down the cost of the vaccine.

“This sends very different market signals and we expect that as more vaccine candidates come, the price will continuously drop. And while fixing the price will ensure there is no escalation, the price that they have fixed should also be responsive to the changes in the market because Rs 500 per person is still too high a cost.”

Malini Aisola, Co-convenor, All India Drug Action Network

She also welcomed the government decision to control the supply as vaccines are still not universally approved and are being used in emergency mode. Private hospitals procuring vaccines directly from the suppliers would have led to escalation of costs, she warns.