Indian vaccine makers have pledged to supply vaccines at reduced prices to the GAVI Alliance, a Geneva-based public-private partnership, where IT-czar-and-philanthropist Bill Gates is a founding partner.
On the pentavalent vaccines funded by GAVI, Serum lowered its price to $1.75 per dose, the lowest price available today, a GAVI note said.
Panacea Biotec committed to lower its prices by up to 15 per cent on its 2008 prices.
The pentavalent vaccine protects against five potential killers: diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, hepatitis B, and Haemophilus influenzae type b.
Serum's Executive Director (Operations), Mr Adar C. Poonawalla, told Business Line that the company halved the global price on the pentavalent vaccines.
Though the product is available in the private market in India also at between $2.5 and $3.5, he said, it could be given at a lower price if the Government could commit on the quantity it would source from the company.
Volumes
Despite the lower price, companies are able to make money because of the volumes required and the economies of scale, he explained.
As a result, more vaccines are available from the same funds, he said.
A Panacea Biotec spokesperson said that its products would be supplied from its India plants and it too was able to pledge lower prices because of economical production costs.
The size of the deal, though, was not disclosed.
On the anvil
Besides Serum and Panacea, Bharat Biotech and Shantha Biotechnics (now a subsidiary of Sanofi Pasteur), are developing rotavirus vaccines for GAVI-eligible countries, the note said.
These vaccines would, however, not be ready for purchase through UNICEF until approximately 2015, the note added.
Bharat Biotech said it could offer further price reductions and lower the cost of immunising a child to $3, GAVI said.
The vaccine will be sold to global public markets, Governments worldwide including UN procurement agencies at a price of $1, Bharat Biotech added.
Rotavirus is the leading cause of severe diarrhoea – the world's second biggest killer of children after pneumonia.
GSK's offer
Multinational drug-maker GlaxoSmithKline too offered to provide the rotavirus vaccine to GAVI at $2.50 per dose, or $5 to fully immunise a child, in response to a current tender administered by UNICEF, a GAVI Alliance partner.
The offer is a 67 per cent reduction in the current lowest available public price.
Merck has also stated that it will offer its rotavirus vaccine to UNICEF at discounted prices, the note said.