The national Department of Health’s deputy director-general, Dr Nicholas Crisp, has conceded the country was hard done by during the Covid-19 vaccine procurement process – that the government was not allowed to reduce the amount of vaccine it had ordered, among other things, and that “the bottom line is, we were screwed”.
South Africa was forced to follow Europe and the US in the long queue for supplies, despite paying R14.1bn upfront for 60m doses, and at a time when J&J vaccines were being filled and bottled in Gqeberha, the multinational pharmaceutical company refused to give SA preferential access, instead exporting them to Western countries.
They then gave South Africa what was left over, reports TimesLIVE.
These details all emerged from the Health Justice Initiative (HJI) investigation into the vaccine procurement agreements between 2020 and 2022, between the NDoH and Janssen Pharmaceuticals, which produces the J&J vaccine, as well as with Pfizer, the Serum Institute of India and vaccine pool Covax.
The recently released report found the government was “bullied” by multinational pharmaceutical companies that held them over a barrel in negotiations. It showed that South Africa was charged $10 a dose by J&J, 15% more than the company charged the EU. Pfizer allegedly charged the country 32% more than it charged EU countries.
HJI also found that South Africa was charged $5.35 a dose by the Serum Institute of India, which produced the AstraZeneca vaccine, 2.5 times the price the EU paid.
At least $10.55 a dose went to Covax – media reports at the time said had agreed to supply the country with about 6m doses.
Crisp said there was no doubt that this was unacceptable. “We are very unhappy with the way in which this all happened. The question is, what do we do going forward?
“We were not allowed to reduce our orders. That was also unacceptable … we couldn’t change our mind. (When) we tried to, we were told that ‘you’ve committed, that’s it. We’ve made the vaccine. You will take it. Even if you have to dispose of it, it’s your problem and there’s no refund. There is no recall. There’s no nothing’,” said Crisp.
However, he denied South Africa was overcharged, as reflected in the agreements the HJI were given.
According to the J&J contract, South Africa was charged $10 a dose, but ended up paying the global non-profit price of $7.50, Crisp said.
Yet there was no doubt South Africa was badly treated.
“We had to pay for things even when we did not need them. We got legal advice on whether we could change those terms but were told we couldn’t.
“And then when J&J started bottling vaccines here in South Africa, the President went to intervene in Europe to try to get the vaccine that was being bottled here – but they refused.
“They exported all of that vaccine to Europe and then re-exported, from there to us, that which they thought they could spare at the time, to honour their worldwide deliveries,” he said.
Crisp said the government was not hiding the details of the agreements but was unable to provide them to HJI or make them public because of the non-disclosure agreements signed.
Conversations were now taking place internationally and at the UN to prevent this from happening again, he added.
TimesLIVE PressReader article – We were screwed over vaccines – Crisp (Open access)
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
SA ‘bullied, held to ransom’ and paid double for Covid vaccines
Judge orders Health Department to disclose vaccine contract data
Health activists seek access to SA's confidential vaccine supply agreements
HJI goes to court to access vaccine supply records