Bharat Biotech on Thursday announced that it is slashing the price of its Covid-19 vaccine Covaxin to Rs 400, from Rs 600 earlier, for state governments.

The announcement came a day after the Serum Institute of India (SII) cut the price of Covishield to Rs 300 from Rs 400 earlier.

The two vaccine makers slashed the prices after the Central government reportedly made a request to them amid the row over different pricing for the Central and state governments.

Bharat Biotech said in a statement on Thursday that it deeply concerned with the critical pandemic circumstances that India is facing at this time.

“Recognising the enormous challenges to the public healthcare system, we have made Covaxin available to state governments at a price of Rs 400 per dose,” the Hyderabad-based company said.

“We wish to be transparent in our approach to pricing which was determined by internally funded product development, several operationally-intensive BSL-3 manufacturing facilities (the first of its kind in our country) and clinical trials,” it added.

The company stated that for the last one year, Team Bharat Biotech has been fearlessly handling live SARS-CoV-2 virus strains, tirelessly working round-the-clock while overcoming many challenges given the uncertainty of the pandemic.

Bharat Biotech had on April 24 announced the prices of Covaxin. It fixed at Rs 1,200 as the price per dose for private hospitals. This is twice the cost fixed by the SII for Covishield.

For exports, it has priced India’s first indigenous Covid vaccine at $15-$20 (Rs 1,125-1,500).

Ever since the launch of Covid vaccination programme in India, Bharat Biotech and the SII have been supplying their vaccines to the Centre at Rs 150 per dose.

While Bharat Biotech is likely to continue the supplies to the Centre at the same price, the SII had hinted at revising this to Rs 400.