Centre officially places order with SII for 'COVISHIELD'; cost fixed at Rs 200 per dose

Pushing ahead its vaccine rollout on January 16, Centre has officially placed a purchase order of 11 million doses with Serum Institute India for its Coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine- COVISHIELD on Monday. Reports had stated that delay over order was due to Centre's negotiation with SII to lower price of each vaccine shot. Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine is priced at Rs 200 per shot and with GST of Rs 10, it would cost Rs 210, stated SII which has already stockpiled 50 million doses for India. Dispatch of vaccine is likely to start by late Monday evening, y said.

SII receives purchase order for vaccine

First COVID-19 Vaccine Truck: Koolex cold chain set to transport key consignments from SII

How will vaccine be transported?

Pune-based SII, will send its vaccines via air transport to Centre-run primary vaccine stores (GMSD depots) at four locations in India - Karnal, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata. From se depots, vaccines will be transported to 37 state vaccine stores across country in insulated vans or refrigerated vans. n, vaccines will n be sent to district vaccine stores by respective state or union territory and furr transported to primary health centres to inculate beneficiaries. At present, re are a total of 29,000 cold chain points across India and Centre has registered 75 lakh beneficiaries on its Co-WIN app - which is mandatory for inculation.

Koolex Cold Chain Limited, a Mumbai-based pharma supply chain company - will roll out 300 reefer trucks with COVISHIELD vials on Monday. Speaking to Republic TV, Koolex Cold Chain's Managing Director Rahul Subhash Agarwal informed that y are planning to move 2 to 3 consignments of vaccine to various destination points across country, as soon as details of destinations were given to m. Rahul Agarwal said, "re are 40-50 primary locations across India where COVID-19 vaccines will be delivered by various modes of transport".

COVAXIN completes enrollment of 25,800 volunteers for phase-3 trials ahead of 'dry run'

COVISHIELD trial details 

On Sunday, Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) VG Somani anunced that vaccines of Serum Institue of India (Covishield) and Bharat Biotech (Covaxin) have been granted permission for restricted use in an emergency situation. Covishield - a Recombinant Chimpanzee Adevirus vector vaccine - has an efficacy of 70.42%, with interim safety and immugenicity data of Phase-II/III trials submitted to SEC. UK has already begun iculating people with COVISHIELD in past week.

ICMR chief Dr. Balram Bhargava explained, "In Covaxin - We have data on animal trials in India showing excellent response in terms of safety, immugenicity. phase-1 and phase-2 results on 265 and 380 participants - d 18 to 55 & 12 to 65 showed very low adverse events, strong response to all structural proteins including spike. Phase 3 clinical trials with 25,800 participants - 24,000 have been enrolled and re have been safety concerns, with first dose given to m."

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