Liberals and opposition went on a spree of misleading public on vaccine price. Adar Poonawalla puts an end to it

As the country faces the worst public health crisis in recent history, the opposition leaders and left-liberal establishment are on a spree to spread fake news. The scientists and industrialists who led India’s Covid response and ensured that the country produces vaccines at a massive scale and cheap rates are being haunted by the opposition leaders and left liberals. 

Serum Institute of India (SII), a globally reputed company and the world’s largest manufacturer of vaccines, is at the target of the left-liberal establishment and the opposition for the last few days. They criticised the company for keeping the price of vaccine different for the central government (150 rupees), state government (400 rupees), and private hospitals (600 rupees). 

However, SII explained that the new doses ordered by the central government would cost the same as that to the state governments, and the prices were low earlier because the Union government provided emergency advance (more like venture capitalist) for vaccine production, but the opposition continued its defamation campaign against the company because illiterate liberals understand nothing about economics. 

Later, the liberals picked up an ill-informed story by The Indian Express to argue that the company is selling vaccines in India at the highest prices. The Express story argued that the company is selling vaccines in India at a higher price than the rate at which it sold to countries like Bangladesh, European Union, or South Africa. 

The company clarified that the initial price was “kept low globally as it was based on advance funding given by those countries for at risk vaccine manufacturing.” “The initial supply price of Covishield for all government immunization programme, including India, has been the lowest,” it said.

“The current situation is extremely dire; the virus is constantly mutating while the public remains at risk. Identifying the uncertainty, we have to ensure sustainability as we must be able to invest in scaling up and expanding our capacity to fight the pandemic and save lives.”

The company also argued that the cost of vaccines is far lower than what the people are spending on other medical expenses. “The price of the vaccine is still lower than a lot of other medical treatment and essentials required to treat COVID-19 and other life threatening diseases,” it said. 

The company also gave the rationale behind keeping the price for private players higher. “Government procurement for countrywide immunisation programs in all countries including India has been at a far lower price as the volumes are very large. For instance, based on the market conditions, prices of many vaccines in the private market including our pneumococcal vaccine are sold at a higher free-economy price, whereas for the government it is almost one-third of the free market price,” it said.

The liberals, who are contributing nothing to society except 4-5 opinion pieces, are coming out against a company that saved millions of lives in India as well as in the world with the production of low-cost vaccines. Had SII and Bharat Biotech not been there, India would have been forced to import vaccines from the United States, and given the behaviour of the Biden administration, one knows very well where it could have ended. With the press release, the Serum Institute of India has provided the reasoning behind every decision it made, and the attempt by the liberal establishment to haunt entrepreneurs, industrialists have failed.