Covid-19 vaccine update: Biological E’s Corbevax to cost Rs 800 per dose

Biological E has priced its Corbevax vaccine, meant for children in the 12-15 age group, at Rs 145 per dose for the government and Rs 800 per dose for private sector buyers.

Along with the taxes and vaccine administering charges, the cost for the private sector would go up to Rs 990 per dose.

The government on Wednesday rolled out vaccination for 12-15 age groups across the country and has so far been supplied 50 million doses of Corbevax. It has already paid Biological E an amount of Rs 1,500 crore for procuring 300 million vaccine doses. The company has applied for WHO pre-qualification and is awaiting a site inspection in the coming weeks.

Mahima Datla, managing director, Biological E, said the indigenously-developed vaccine would save the country an estimated Rs 1,500 crore.

The vaccine is being manufactured across multiple facilities in Hyderabad and the annual production would be one billion doses, Datla said. The clinical trials covered children between five and 18 years and the company applied for regulatory approval for the 5-12 years age group. The company said it was confident the vaccine was safe and added it would be carrying out trials on children aged up to five months in future.

Biological E has invested Rs 900 crore as working capital to procure raw materials and Rs 1,000 crore to expand manufacturing facilities. The investment in R&D and clinical trials has been around 500 crore, of which Rs 250 crore was invested by the company and the other Rs 250 crore by the Department of Biotechnology’s public enterprise, Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC), the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Coalition for Epidemic Prevention and Innovation (CEPI).

The stockpiling of the vaccines, which have a shelf life of a year, began in October 2021. As of now, the government would be the largest buyer with only around 10% of the supply expected to go into the private markets. Biological E carried out clinical trials on 4,000 volunteers across 35 clinical trial sites.

Datla claimed the Corbevax vaccine was superior to the Covishield vaccine and could neutralise multiple variants of concern including Beta, Delta and the most recent Omicron variant. She said it has persistent immunity, which lasts longer with a minimal drop in antibody titers.

Biological E collaborated with the Texas Children’s Hospital and Baylor College to develop Corbevax. Dynavax from the USA supported Corbevax development by providing the adjuvant while THSTI Delhi conducted key immunogenicity testing.