Key points:
- A senior government official stated that price, as well as availability, will be negotiated after the vaccine is authorized for use in India.
- The mRNA vaccine was authorized last week by the UK for use and could be approved this week by the US.
- Pfizer has agreements with the US, the United Kingdom, and Japan as well.
- Still, pricing, as well as supply negotiations, will have to wait before the CDSCO.
India is yet to address the price of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine as well as the company’s ability to supply orders placed by the country as the emergency authorization required by the vaccine developer is checked by the Central Drugs Quality Control Organization or CDSCO.
As government official stated:
A senior government official stated that price, as well as availability, will be negotiated after the vaccine is authorized for use in India.
This individual referred to the $20 price tag of the vaccine in the US and contrasted it with the $3-4 Available from the Serum Institute of India for the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine being produced locally.
Pfizer vaccine faces an obstacle:
This has been confirmed by a second office. (The) Pfizer (vaccine) not only faces a huge logistical obstacle because it has to be processed at Antarctic temperatures but also has a high price tag.
There is space for bargaining. The business entered into an agreement with the EU for $18.34 per dose, the second person stated.
The mRNA vaccine:
The mRNA vaccine was authorized last week by the UK for use and could be approved this week by the US.
In geographies apart from those where clinical trials are carrying out, regulatory approvals can be obtained, providing detailed trial results.
With the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, however, there is another issue: availability.
As the first official stated:
“The first official said, “If they get an emergency authorization, they need to tell us how they are going to have the necessary vaccine.No official wished to be named, either.
Though 200 million Pfizer doses have been booked by the EU, India will need 580 million doses across 290 million people, or for the first three focus groups consisting of health staff, frontline workers as well as elderly people with co-morbidities.
Vaccines are expected to be administered by
these three classes around January and July 2021.
Pfizer has agreements with the US, the United Kingdom, and Japan as well.
As the first official stated:
The government is aiming at a bouquet of vaccines for the Indian population’s immune system. “While our focus remains on vaccines made in India, we have not closed our doors to imported ones,” the first official stated.
To be sure, the SII-manufactured AstraZeneca/Oxford one is the only vaccine developed locally anywhere close to being approved.
Pricing and supply have to be decided:
Still, pricing, as well as supply negotiations, will have to wait before the CDSCO, led by Drugs Controller General Dr VG Somani, goes through filings of the firm. For clarity, he may also look for a virtual meeting with Pfizer.
The company also submitted to the Indian authorities comprehensive data from its trials.
As the first official pointed:
“But that too did not come easily,” the first official pointed out. Pfizer insisted on a non-disclosure deal with the government of the Union.
As a sovereign nation, we signed such an agreement with a corporation that was also headquartered in the United States, so we had to ask a biotechnology organization to sign the non-disclosure pact.
Its vaccine has 95 per cent effectiveness, according to top-line data published by Pfizer. A similar pledge of secrecy was also made by Russia’s Gamaleya Center when exchanging trial data for its Sputnik V vaccine.
