Deliveries of Cfid-19 vaccine from Pfizer Inc. in South Africa was delayed by the demands of the US drug manufacturer to establish the necessary guarantees to compensate the company for any negative effects resulting from the blows.
The condition was thwarted by the government and Pfizer stepped back, agreeing to provide 30 million doses of vaccine co-developed with German company BioNTech SE.
“This condition posed a potential risk to our assets and taxation,” Finance Minister Zweli Mkhize said in an April 14 briefing to Parliament’s health committee and revised by Bloomberg. “Pfizer has finally acknowledged the elimination of this problematic term.”
South Africa, which has not yet begun a large-scale launch of Covid-19 vaccines, has complained about the terms and conditions imposed by both Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson to secure the supply. Both companies have conducted vaccination studies in the country.
For more on the disagreement with J&J, click here
“As a government, we have found ourselves in a precarious position to choose between saving the lives of our citizens and risking putting the country’s assets in the hands of private companies,” he said.
South Africa is setting up a no-fault compensation fund to compensate companies for any claims related to its vaccines.
“Pfizer seeks protection for damages and liability in all our agreements in accordance with applicable local laws,” the company said, adding that the terms of the agreement are confidential. “Compensation clauses are often included in government contracts for the provision of vaccines during public health emergencies.”
Mkhize also said that $ 10 per dose supply agreements with both companies are non-refundable. The Pfizer vaccine uses a two-dose regimen, while Johnson & Johnson’s requires only a single dose. Previous plans to use the AstraZeneca Plc vaccine have been abandoned after tests showed it was less effective against a virus variant first identified in South Africa.
The requests were previously reported by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism.
(Updates with AstraZeneca withdrawal in the last second paragraph)