“For practical purposes also we have appealed to the government to bring down the gap for booster dose from nine months to six months,” says Adar Poonawalla, CEO, Serum Institute of India.
On third booster dose being available for Rs 225
The announcement has been taken very well by the hospitals that the price of Rs 225 versus our original price of Rs 600 will be adjusted by way of giving free doses to that amount. So they are not stuck with old stock at Rs 600. Nobody will lose any money or have to sell it at a loss at a lower price. The hospitals have been given the Rs 150 on top as an administration fee by the government to use for administering the vaccines.
On third booster dose being available for Rs 225
The announcement has been taken very well by the hospitals that the price of Rs 225 versus our original price of Rs 600 will be adjusted by way of giving free doses to that amount. So they are not stuck with old stock at Rs 600. Nobody will lose any money or have to sell it at a loss at a lower price. The hospitals have been given the Rs 150 on top as an administration fee by the government to use for administering the vaccines.
There is a lot of talk about the current inventory level at Serum Institute of India (SII). What are your plans to reduce it?
We have 200 million doses of Covishield lying with us and it is available for boosters. It is available for exports and we are slowly moving that out but bringing the gap from nine months to six months will definitely help hospitals and other clinics to administer the doses faster for boosters. We have got new mutant variants coming. People want to travel. A lot of countries in Europe insist that you should have taken a vaccine shot not more than 270 days ago or you will need a booster. So, for practical purposes also we have appealed to the government to bring down the gap for booster dose from nine months to six months.
We thought the pandemic was just over but another variant has come out. How strong is your current vaccine? Do you think another booster dose of Covishield will protect the person against any future variants?
All the vaccines as a booster have globally shown good data against variants. Everyone just needs to take a booster and the new variants that you are talking about have not shown to be so bad at the moment but we will have to wait and watch how it spreads and that is why it is very important to get on with boosters as soon as possible.
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