Pfizer offers COVID vaccine at 'not-for-profit' price only through government contracts in India

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New Delhi: Global pharma major Pfizer on Thursday (April 22) offered to supply vaccines at a "not-for-profit" price for the government immunisation programme in India. It also expressed that it would continue its engagement with the government to make the vaccine available in the country, said a report.

The company also said during the pandemic phase it will supply the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 mRNA vaccine only through government contracts.

In an email response to PTI, the pharma company said, "Pfizer remains committed to continuing our engagement with the Government towards making the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine available for use in the government's immunization programme in the country."

As stated earlier, Pfizer will prioritise supporting governments in their immunisation programmes and supply the COVID-19 vaccine only through government contracts based on agreements with respective government authorities and following regulatory authorisation or approvals, said the statement.

Pfizer, however, did not reveal the 'not-for-profit' price that it has suggested to the government. The company is committed to working for equitable and affordable access for its vaccine across the world, the Pfizer spokesperson reportedly said.

"... In all our agreements Pfizer has adopted a distinct pricing structure for high, middle, and low/lower-middle-income countries consistent with our commitment to work towards equitable and affordable access for our COVID-19 vaccine for people around the world," PTI quoted the spokesperson as saying. 

Notably, the company charges $19.5 per dose from the US government to supply the vaccine. The European Union, however, is under talks with Pfizer/BioNTech for a new contract for 1.8 billion doses of Covid-19 vaccines to be delivered in 2022 and 2023.

In the EU, Pfizer has significantly increased prices of its vaccine over the last few months -- from 12 euros to 15.5 euros and then 19.5 euros ($23) per dose for orders in 2022-23.

Further, the National Vaccine Strategy aims at liberalised vaccine pricing and scaling up of vaccine coverage. This would augment vaccine production as well as availability, incentivising vaccine manufacturers to rapidly ramp up production as well as attract new vaccine manufacturers, domestic and international, said an official statement from the Health Ministry.

Earlier on Monday, the Centre announced that everyone above 18 years of age would be eligible to get vaccinated against COVID-19 from May 1. The government, therefore, liberalised the vaccination drive to allow states, private hospitals and industrial establishments to procure the vaccine doses directly from manufacturers.

Under the third phase of the vaccination drive, the vaccine manufacturers would supply 50 per cent of their monthly Central Drugs Laboratory (CDL) released doses to the central government and would be free to supply the remaining 50 per cent doses to state governments and in the open markets. 

(With Agency Inputs)