Deliveries of Pfizer Inc.’s Covid-19 vaccine to South Africa was delayed by demands from the US drug company to establish the guarantees necessary to protect the company from any negative effects of the injections.
The government opposed the condition, and Pfizer eventually withdrew, agreeing to supply 30 million doses of the vaccine that had been co-developed with Germany’s BioNTech SE.
“This condition posed a potential risk to our assets and taxation,” Treasury Secretary Zweli Mkhize said in an April 14 briefing paper presented to the Parliament’s public health committee and reviewed by Bloomberg. “Pfizer finally admitted that this problematic term was removed.”
South Africa, which has yet to begin a wide rollout of Covid-19 vaccines, has complained about the conditions imposed by both Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson to secure supplies. Both companies have conducted vaccine trials in the country.
Click here for more information about the disagreement with J&J
“As a government, we are in a precarious position where we have to choose between saving the lives of our citizens or taking the risk of putting the country’s assets into the hands of private companies,” he said.
South Africa is setting up a compensation fund to indemnify companies against any complaints about their vaccines.
“Pfizer is committed to indemnification and liability protection in all of our agreements in accordance with applicable local law,” the company said, adding that the terms of the agreement are confidential. “Safeguard clauses are often included in contracts with governments for the delivery of vaccines during public health emergencies.”
Mkhize also said delivery agreements at $ 10 per dose with either company are non-refundable. Pfizer’s vaccine uses a two-dose regimen, while Johnson & Johnson’s only requires a single dose. Previous plans to use AstraZeneca Plc’s vaccine were discontinued after tests showed it was less effective against a virus variant first identified in South Africa.
The claims were previously reported by the Bureau for Investigative Journalism.
(Updates with AstraZeneca setback in penultimate paragraph)