New Delhi, Nov 8 (FN Bureau) Pharmaceutical giant Zydus Cadila’s to charge the Centre Rs 1,128 for a full three-dose regimen of its COVID-19 vaccine ZyCoV-D, the firm announced on Monday. The union government has placed an order of 1 crore doses for the needle-free injector based COVID-19 after the pricing was decided, it added. The vaccine would be made available to the Centre at Rs 376 per shot which includes the cost of the jab, injector and GST, according to the statement by Zydus. According to the break-up provided by the firm, a single dose of ZyCoV-D to cost Rs 265. A needle-free applicator offered with each dose would additionally cost Rs 93. Summing up the GST of 5 per cent would make the final cost to Rs 376 per dose.
The complete dose of Zydus Cadila’s Covid vaccine will cost the Union government Rs 1,128, which is almost double of Serum Institute of India’s Covishield and significantly higher than Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin. The Centre is procuring Covishield at Rs 200+5% GST while each jab of Covaxin is costing Rs 295+5% GST to the Union government. Speaking on the development, the Managing Director of the company, Dr Sharvil Patel said, “We are happy to support the Government’s vaccination programme with ZyCoV-D. The needle-free application of the vaccination, we hope, will motivate many more to vaccinate and safeguard themselves from Covid-19, especially children and young adults in the age group of 12 to 18 years.” ZyCoV-D is the first DNA plasmid vaccine in the world for human use, developed indigenously by the firm against the Covid-19 virus.
It is also the first COVID-19 vaccine which is needle-free and administered using The PharmaJet®, a needle-free applicator to ensure painless intradermal vaccine delivery which also leads to a significant reduction in any kind of major side effects, Zydus said in the statement. ZyCoV-D has shown good stability at temperatures of around 25 degrees for at least three months. The thermostability of the vaccine will help in easy transportation and storage of the vaccine without any problems of fluctuations in temperature. For prolonged use, a temperature of 2-8 degrees is sufficient, according to the company.