Covid-19: How much vaccines are expected to cost

Leaders across the globe have urged the global community to provide vaccines at affordable rates so that a large chunk of population can be immunised.

Russia on Tuesday announced that Sputnik V, its vaccine against the coronavirus disease (Covid-19), is 95 per cent effective in tackling the infection. The claim was based on second interim analysis of the clinical data.

Global availability of Covid-19 vaccines and equal distribution has been the subject of many global forums recently. (Reuters File Photo)

The announcement from the developers of the vaccine, the Gamaleya research centre, is the latest in the recent list of vaccine developers declaring the trial results of their corresponding vaccines.

Global availability of vaccines and equal distribution has been the subject of many global forums. Leaders across the globe have urged the global community to provide vaccines at affordable rates so that a large chunk of population can be immunised.

Here is a list of top vaccine candidates and expected price of dose based on announcements:

Pfizer-BioNTech

US pharmaceutical company Pfizer along with the German company BioNTech reported an effectiveness of 95 per cent in their vaccine candidate. They have also requested the US Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) for an emergency usage authorisation.

The vaccine is developed using the mRNA technology and needs to be administered in two doses.

The United States government has already reserved 100 million doses of the vaccine under its Operation Warp Speed at US $19.5 a dose. BioNTech’s strategy head Ryan Richardson has also said that they are planning to price the vaccine well below the typical market rates.

Moderna

Moderna is another American biotechnology company that recently reported that their Covid-19 experimental vaccine was found to be 94.5 per cent effective.

Stephen Bancel, chief executive officer of Moderna, has said that a single dose of their vaccine would cost anywhere between US $25 and US $37, which according to him is roughly similar to a flu shot in the United States.

Oxford-AstraZeneca

Another frontrunner in the race to find a vaccine for Covid-19 is the candidate being developed by Oxford and AstraZeneca. A lot of details have emerged about its ease of storage and distribution, and pricing.

The company reported an effectiveness of 70 per cent with a single dose and a tweak in the dosage helped the effectiveness increase to 90 per cent.

Serum Institute of India (SII) has partnered with AstraZeneca in manufacturing the vaccine and it would be sold at roughly US $3 per dose, as per Olivier Nataf, head of AstraZeneca in France.

Sputnik V

Gamaleya Institute in Russia, developers of the Sputnik V vaccine, have said that their candidate would be sold at “much lower prices” than those of Pfizer and Moderna.

The developers reported an overall effectiveness of 95 per cent based on a second interim data analysis. Notably, the statement released to report vaccine effectiveness didn’t include the count of Covid-19 infections used to arrive at the final number.