Russian Vaccine Sputnik To Cost Rs 948 + GST

Two weeks after the arrival of Russian Covid-19 vaccine Sputnik-V, it is set to roll out in the market. On Thursday the Central Drug Laboratory has cleared the use of Sputnik and a short while ago, the vaccine price was announced.

Hyderabad based Dr. Reddy’s is the Indian partner of Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) which has developed the vaccine Sputnik-V. This imported vaccine has been priced at Rs 948 per dose. However as the Centre did not exempt the GST of 5 percent, the vaccine price with GST goes up to Rs 995.4 which is just under Rs 1000 a dose.

This makes Sputnik-V the most expensive vaccine in India. Indian vaccine manufacturers Serum Institute and Bharat Biotech vaccines i.e, Covishield and Covaxin are comparatively less. Serum’s vaccine is priced at Rs 300 while Bharat Biotech’s vaccine is Rs 400 per dose.

The only major factor that can work in favour of Sputnik-V is it’s effectiveness. Even the American experts confirmed that Sputnik-V’s efficiency is nearly 90 percent.

Meanwhile Dr. Reddy’s is gearing up to roll out the vaccine in India in a limited pilot drive.