Over 100 million Covid-19 vaccine doses wasted in India by September-end

Covid-19 vaccine makers have no plans to seek further shelf life extensions

India may have wasted a little over 100 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines by the end of September, as the doses were past their shelf lives. Assuming a price of Rs 225 per dose (for Covishield and Covaxin), the value of the wasted stock is around Rs 2,250 crore.

Meanwhile, sources in the vaccine manufacturing industry indicate that they have no plans to seek further extensions in shelf lives of these Covid-19 vaccines. “These were formulated in a way that they have nine-12 months’ shelf lives. So, initially, firms were submitting stability data from batches over a period of time