The Serum Institute of India (SII) on Wednesday announced that the Covishield vaccine will be available to state governments for Rs 400 per dose and private hospitals at Rs 600 per dose. The decision was taken following the directives of the central government, its press release stated. The vaccine price will remain at Rs 150 per dose for the Centre.

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In a statement posted on its Twitter handle, SII said that for the next two months, it will address the limited capacity by scaling up the vaccine production. It added that the announcement will accelerate India’s vaccination drive.

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“The promising directives will help to scale up vaccine production, and allow state governments, private hospitals, and vaccination centers to procure vaccines directly,” it said.

“Going ahead, 50% of our capacities will be served to the Government of India’s vaccination programme, and the remaining 50% of the capacity will be for the state governments and private hospitals,” it said.

The company also urged the corporate entities and private individuals to access the vaccines through the state facilitated machinery and private health systems. “Post 4-5 months, the vaccines will be made available in retail and free trade,” it stated.

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Covishield vaccine is more affordable than the vaccines available in America, Russia and China, SII said.

On Monday, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman approved an advance payment of over Rs 4,500 crore for India’s vaccine makers SII and Bharat Biotech to boost vaccine production in the country, ANI reported quoting sources.

Pune-based SII, the world’s largest vaccine maker, is manufacturing the Covishield vaccine, which is developed by the University of Oxford in collaboration with British-Swedish pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca.