The Health Justice Initiative (HJI) has filed a motion in the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) demanding the confidential commercial details around South Africa’s COVID-19 vaccine supply in the country. Among those cited are Johnson & Johnson (J&J) and its subsidiary Janssen Pharmaceuticals; local pharmaceutical manufacturer Aspen Pharmacare; the Serum Institute of India and its local representative Cipla; Pfizer; the AU Vaccine Access Task Team; the global vaccine sharing mechanism Covax; the Solidarity Fund; Chinese manufacturer Sinovac, and any other vaccine manufacturers or licensees with which it has made agreements.
According to Business Insider, the HJI tried to obtain the documents in July 2021, under the Promotion of Access to Information Act. Those formal requests were effectively denied, it says, most recently by ignoring its correspondence, and it now needs the courts to enforce the law. Only the government is cited in the matter because, says the HJI, it can’t even tell what other legal entities are involved in vaccine contracts; both the Health Department and Pfizer refused to give it details of the companies involved, while J&J did not respond to its requests.
The trouble with figuring out who is involved “is compounded by the fact that the manufacturer of COVID-19 vaccines has entailed partnerships between various private companies, as well as academic institutions”, the organisation’s director Fatima Hassan told the court. The HJI argues that secrecy on the commercial terms of vaccine acquisition opens the door to speculation that the government “may have been compelled to overpay for vaccines, or to accept extremely onerous procurement terms. This has the real potential to erode public trust in the vaccination programme, and in government’s ability to effectively procure and administer vaccines”.
The HJI also argues that any non-disclosure agreements the government entered into would be in conflict with public policy, and unenforceable.
A Business Day report notes HJI’s lawyers have asked the court to compel the minister and the department’s information officer to join the companies and other relevant parties to the legal proceedings, because the HJI has been unable to determine who they are. Department of Health spokesperson Foster Mohale said the department’s legal unit is studying the papers and will respond through the appropriate legal channels.
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