A single dose of Bharat Biotech’s intranasal vaccine iNCOVACC is now available on CoWin application for Rs 800, while Rs 325 has been fixed for purchase in government facilities.
Moneycontrol quoted top government sources as saying that Rs 800 is apart from 5 percent Goods and Services Tax (GST) in private hospitals. Provided that private hospitals are permitted to charge up to Rs 150 as an administrative charge for every dose of the Covid-19 vaccine, one dose of this vaccine developed on a technology licensed by the Washington University in St Louis may cost about Rs 1,000 for every recipient.
The intranasal vaccine, which has been earlier approved both as a booster shot for those fully vaccinated with Covaxin or Covishield, as well as a primary vaccine for a full two-dose course against Covid-19, would be available at private vaccination centres by the end of January.
“We have achieved the goals we set for ourselves during this pandemic. We have developed Covaxin and Inovacc, two Covid vaccines from two different platforms, with two different delivery systems. The vectored intranasal delivery platform gives us the capability for rapid product development, scale-up, easy and painless immunization during public health emergencies and pandemics,” Bharat Biotech Executive Chairman Dr Krishna Ella said in a statement.
He further thanked the Ministry of Health, CDSCO, Dept of Biotechnology, Government of India, Technology Development Board, and Washington University, St Louis, for their support and guidance.
A press release from the vaccine maker said the jab will be rolled out in the fourth week of January, 2023. iNCOVACC is the world’s first intranasal vaccine for Covid to receive approval for the primary two-dose schedule, and as a heterologous booster dose.
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