ISLAMABAD: The Pakistani government has announced a price cap for shots of the privately imported Russian Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine, the local media reported on Sunday.
A private pharmaceutical company, AGP Limited, last week imported the first shipment of 50,000 doses of the Russian vaccine to Pakistan.
In February, Pakistan said it would allow private companies to import coronavirus vaccines and agreed to exempt such imports from price caps, but on Thursday the country's health chief said that decision was being reversed and the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) would recommend a price, which the cabinet would approve.
"The government has fixed the maximum sale price of Sputnik V Russian vaccine at Rs8,449 ($54) for two doses," the Express Tribune reported, quoting a health ministry circular issued on Saturday.
According to the report, China’s Convidecia vaccine produced by CansinoBio, will cost maximum Rs4,225 per injection.
China’s Sinopharm and CansinoBio, Sputnik-V and the British AstraZeneca vaccines are approved for emergency use in Pakistan, whose government has not secured any vaccine from manufacturing companies yet and is relying so far on donations.
The Russian vaccine that arrived in Karachi on Wednesday night is the first private batch purchased and imported by a private company.
Dr. Rana Muhammad Safdar, director-general of health at the Ministry of National Health Services and Regulations, said that following a request from AGP Limited, a DRAP pricing committee had on Friday recommended the price tag for each dose of the vaccine and forwarded the recommendation to the federal cabinet for approval.
"DRAP has submitted a summary to fix price; that requires approval of the cabinet," Safdar told Arab News."
A DRAP notification, which is available with Arab News, recommends a price formula for imported vaccines as the vaccine's landed cost plus a 40% markup.
The maximum retail price will be calculated by "grossing up trade price to provide for retail discount at 15%," according to the notification.
Levies will "not exceed 10% of the cost of freight price by the importer."
A spokesperson for DRAP said a “robust mechanism” was in place to ensure the vaccine would only be sold at the government-fixed price.
“Let me tell you that the Sputnik vaccine won’t be available over the counter as it will be inoculated through government-authorized facilities only, at a fixed price,” Akhtar Abbas, DRAP spokesperson, told Arab News.
He ruled out any possibility of the black marketing of the vaccine: “This will be available through the government authorized mechanism only, and thus absolutely no chance of any black market (deals).”
The South Asian nation of 220 million rolled out its COVID-19 vaccination for frontline health care workers in the first week of February after receiving a donation of 500,000 doses of the Sinopharm vaccine from China. This month, it started vaccinating people above the age of 60. On Wednesday, the government received another Chinese donation of 500,000 million doses of the Sinopharm.
According to official data, the government has vaccinated more than 450,000 people so far across the country.
Pakistan is also expected to receive its first shipment of the AstraZeneca vaccine this month through the COVAX vaccine sharing initiative for poorer nations.
