At a virtual conference in December, the Chairman and CEO of Pfizer, Albert Bourla revealed the tier wise pricing model being applied to price the Pfizer vaccine across the word. Speaking at the conference announced for International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations (IFPMA), Bourla said developed countries would be charged for the vaccine on the basis of their GDP. Following this, a lower price would be charged for middle-income countries and low-income countries would be charged a price on a, not for profit basis. He also added that in developed countries such as the United States, the rates would remain very affordable.
In the United States, the price of the Pfizer vaccine to be given in two doses is estimated to be $19.50 (Rs. 1,434) per dose. Moderna also announced each dose of the vaccine will be for around $32-37 (Rs. 2,352 to Rs. 2,750). Each dose for Johnson & Johnson’s two-dose vaccine will cost around $10 (Rs. 735) and the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca’s two-dose vaccine is estimated to be the cheapest at around $3- $4 (Rs. 220-300) a dose. For India, vaccine maker Serum Institute of India has announced that the vaccine will be priced at a maximum of Rs. 1,000 for two necessary doses (Rs. 500 for each dose).
During the Bihar Assembly Elections in November, the Bharatiya Janata Party promised in its manifesto for the state that it would provide free COVID-19 vaccines for all. It also made the same promise in the manifesto for the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) elections last week. Given such announcements, the question that is on everyone’s mind is: will Indians get the COVID-19 vaccine for free? Following the announcement by the BJP in Bihar, Union Minister Pratap Sarangi announced that all Indians will be given free COVID-19 vaccines. Additionally, the governments of Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Assam and Puduchchery have also announced free of cost COVID-19 vaccines in their States.
