The contracts that South Africa signed to procure Covid-19 vaccines showed the country was forced to overpay for vaccines, and the terms and conditions were overwhelmingly one-sided and favoured multinational corporations.
This was revealed by the Health Justice Initiative (HJI) after it reviewed and studied the documents making up the four contracts or agreements handed to it last week.
Last month, the Pretoria high court ruled in the HJI’s favour in its bid to compel the health department to provide access to the Covid-19 vaccine procurement contracts. The court ordered that all Covid-19 vaccine contracts be made public.
Scrutiny of the contracts revealed South Africa was liable for payments of at least $734m (R14bn), including advance payments of almost $95m (R1.8bn) with no guarantees of timely delivery.
It also found South Africa paid 33% more than the AU price for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and paid the Serum Institute of India 2.5 times more for a generic version of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine compared to the UK.
It said J&J charged South Africa $10 a dose, which is 15% ($1.50 a dose) more than the company charged the EU and about 25% more than the estimated not-for-profit price.
The records reveal Pfizer charged South Africa $10 a dose, which is 32.5% more than the $6.75 “cost price” it reportedly charged the AU.
The analysis also showed the agreements placed people and governments in the Global South in the unenviable position of having to secure scarce supplies in a global emergency (2020-2022) with unusually hefty demands and conditions, including secrecy, a lack of transparency, and very little leverage against late or no delivery of supplies or inflated prices — resulting in gross profiteering.
The scrutiny of the contracts found that the exact price of GAVI-Covax doses was unclear. But the organisation’s “all-inclusive weighted average estimated cost per dose” was $10.55 a dose, with a maximum cost of $21.10.
Fatima Hassan, director of HJI said the deference to and fear of powerful pharmaceutical companies, in the middle of a crisis and in a constitutional democracy, was incredibly concerning.
“It shows how much power was put into the hands of private sector actors and how few options governments had, when acting alone, in the middle of a pandemic.
She said in its scramble for desperately needed vaccines, South Africa was forced to hand over unimaginable sums of money for overpriced vaccine doses.
“We were bullied into unfair and undemocratic terms in contracts that were totally one-sided. Put simply, pharmaceutical companies held us to ransom. And we must ask: did they do it to other countries too?” Hassan said.
TimesLIVE
South Africa overpaid for Covid-19 vaccines: Health Justice Initiative
Image: 123RF/ dzein/ File photo
The contracts that South Africa signed to procure Covid-19 vaccines showed the country was forced to overpay for vaccines, and the terms and conditions were overwhelmingly one-sided and favoured multinational corporations.
This was revealed by the Health Justice Initiative (HJI) after it reviewed and studied the documents making up the four contracts or agreements handed to it last week.
Last month, the Pretoria high court ruled in the HJI’s favour in its bid to compel the health department to provide access to the Covid-19 vaccine procurement contracts. The court ordered that all Covid-19 vaccine contracts be made public.
Scrutiny of the contracts revealed South Africa was liable for payments of at least $734m (R14bn), including advance payments of almost $95m (R1.8bn) with no guarantees of timely delivery.
It also found South Africa paid 33% more than the AU price for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and paid the Serum Institute of India 2.5 times more for a generic version of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine compared to the UK.
It said J&J charged South Africa $10 a dose, which is 15% ($1.50 a dose) more than the company charged the EU and about 25% more than the estimated not-for-profit price.
The records reveal Pfizer charged South Africa $10 a dose, which is 32.5% more than the $6.75 “cost price” it reportedly charged the AU.
The analysis also showed the agreements placed people and governments in the Global South in the unenviable position of having to secure scarce supplies in a global emergency (2020-2022) with unusually hefty demands and conditions, including secrecy, a lack of transparency, and very little leverage against late or no delivery of supplies or inflated prices — resulting in gross profiteering.
The scrutiny of the contracts found that the exact price of GAVI-Covax doses was unclear. But the organisation’s “all-inclusive weighted average estimated cost per dose” was $10.55 a dose, with a maximum cost of $21.10.
Fatima Hassan, director of HJI said the deference to and fear of powerful pharmaceutical companies, in the middle of a crisis and in a constitutional democracy, was incredibly concerning.
“It shows how much power was put into the hands of private sector actors and how few options governments had, when acting alone, in the middle of a pandemic.
She said in its scramble for desperately needed vaccines, South Africa was forced to hand over unimaginable sums of money for overpriced vaccine doses.
“We were bullied into unfair and undemocratic terms in contracts that were totally one-sided. Put simply, pharmaceutical companies held us to ransom. And we must ask: did they do it to other countries too?” Hassan said.
TimesLIVE
EXPLAINER | Eris, BA.2.86: Do I need to worry about Covid-19 again?
SA’s role as host of the Brics summit is fraught with dangers
Where can I get vaccinated amid the Covid-19 'Eris' variant?
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.
Most read
Latest Videos