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HomeWeekly RoundupMkhize tells MPs that J&J and Pfizer vaccine deals due 'within days'

Mkhize tells MPs that J&J and Pfizer vaccine deals due 'within days'

Health minister Zweli Mkhize has assured MPs that the government was close to finalising key coronavirus vaccine deals with pharmaceutical manufacturers Johnson & Johnson (J&J) and Pfizer and would conclude agreements within a matter of days.

BusinessLIVE reports that the government has secured a commitment for 9m doses of J&J’s single shot, and 20m doses of the double-shot jab developed by Pfizer/BioNTech, but has been bogged down for weeks in talks with the companies on how to compensate people who suffer adverse events caused by these vaccines. These two deals could provide enough doses to vaccinate almost half of the 40m people targeted in the government's vaccination strategy.
Addressing MPs during a debate on the government’s coronavirus vaccination plans, Mkhize said the Health Department and the Treasury had finalised a proposed compensation approach.

“In principle, this proposed mechanism would provide for recourse for any adverse effect suffered from any vaccine that has been approved for rollout by (the) SA African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA). The minister of finance will make the announcements in his budget speech and expand on this mechanism,” he is quoted in BusinessLIVE as saying. Agreements would be finalised within a few days, said the minister.

Mkhize said the ministerial advisory committee on vaccines had categorised COVID-19 jabs into three groups.

The first category is vaccines that could be considered for immediate use, which include those developed by J&J, Moderna and Pfizer.

The second category is vaccines that appear promising but require additional technical information, and include the Russia’s Sputnik V, and China’s Sinopharm and Sinovac shots. “For these candidates non-disclosure agreements have been singed and our negotiations are advanced. They have offered several millions of vaccines, subject to the finalisation of the outstanding information and price negotiation,” he said.

The final group of vaccines is those that may not be suitable for immediate use in South Africa, and include the shots developed by AstraZeneca and Novavax, he said. There were concerns about the efficacy of these vaccines against the dominant coronavirus variant circulating South Africa, dubbed 501Y.V2, but they could well be used in other parts of the world, he said.

 

[link url="https://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/national/health/2021-02-23-government-poised-to-finalise-key-covid-19-vaccine-deals-says-health-minister/"]Full BusinessLIVE report (Open access)[/link]

 

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