India Likely to Reach Pricing Deal for Astra Vaccine in Days
- India informally agreed to $2.74 a dose for 100 million shots
- Private market may be approved within three months: Serum CEO
Nationwide trials of a Covid-19 vaccine delivery system at a vaccination center in Delhi, India.
Photographer: T. Narayan/BloombergThe Serum Institute of India Ltd., which is producing the coronavirus vaccine developed by AstraZeneca Plc and the University of Oxford, expects the Indian government to sign a formal supply and pricing agreement within days after the shot was approved for emergency usage.
Officials in New Delhi have “indicated orally” that the first 100 million vaccines will be purchased and priced at 200 rupees ($2.74) and a deal should be inked “in the next one or two days,” Serum’s Chief Executive Officer Adar Poonawalla said in an interview on Sunday. “They will probably take another 200 million after that and then we will probably end up selling to the private market,” which might be approved in “two or three months” at 1,000 rupees a vaccine, he said.