Tema, June 11, GNA – The Ministry of Health (MoH) has justified the price paid for the Sputnik V Vaccine a statement copied to the Ghana News Agency, and signed by Mr Kwabena Boadu Oku-Afari, Chief Director stated.
The MoH statement said, “Against the background of non-response from direct channels and a global shortage of the vaccine, the Ministry on March 9th, 2021, responded to an offer from the private office of H.H. Sheikh Ahmed Dalmook AL Maktoum of United Arab Emirates (UAE) for the supply of a total quantity of 3.4 million doses of Sputnik V vaccines at a unit cost of US 19.”
The statement said the unit price was negotiated at a meeting held at the Ministry of Health with representatives from MoH office and Office of Dalmook Al Maktoum, who had travelled to Accra for the purpose.
The MoH said after ascertaining the type and the nature of the vaccine, through the delivery of 15,000 doses, placed an order for the supply of 300,00 doses of the vaccine at a cost of GH¢5,700,000 which were yet to be delivered.
The statement said “this undertaking includes the option to opt out of any obligations if supply conditions are not met. It should be noted that the US$10.00 per price dose which is being proposed as the correct price, is the ex-factory price which is only obtained from Government to Government arrangements.
“The government of Ghana was unable to obtain direct supplies from the Russian government, hence, the resort to the market”.
The statement said the initial price was US$25.00 but was negotiated downwards to the US$19.00, which was as a result of the cost build-up to the ex-factory price of US$10.00 per dose, taking into account land transportation, shipment, insurance, handling and special storage charges, as explained by the seller.
The MoH statement said these were the factors, which led the government to agree to the final price of US$19.00 per dose.
“It should be noted that, at the time of the negotiations, there was scarcity or non-availability of the vaccines in the market and Ghana had also been informed by COVAX that the AstraZeneca vaccines would not arrive by the end of June 2021 so we were operating severely in the suppliers’ market,” the statement stated.
“We were torn between accepting the price to enable us to have access to the vaccine or facing the situation of the seller withdrawing from the negotiation, to the extent that the 15,000 doses that had been shipped to Ghana were going to be rerouted to other countries,” the statement stated.
The Ministry of Health said several other individuals and Ghanaians companies, who had given the MoH indications of capacity to supply sputnik V vaccine, had been engaged accordingly but there have been no results so far adding that, the Public Procurement Authority (PPA) had been duly engaged in the processes.
The statement explained that the MoH had consequently undertaken to place batch orders for quantities of the vaccine based on national need and availability of storage space.
It said the Ministry would endeavour to secure vaccines for Ghanaians despite global shortages and cognizant of the price and legal consideration.
It said in the exercise of the power conferred on the Minister under section 169 of the Public Health Act, 2012 (Act 851) by Executive Instrument declared the Coronavirus Disease a public health emergency in March 2020.
The MoH said the government had since been committed to protecting the population by working towards achieving the thresholds for “herd immunity” against the disease through vaccination, in accordance with the WHO guidelines.
The MoH, therefore, arranged for the supply of the COVID-19 vaccines, guided by lay down principles for the vaccine including market authorization, availability, quality, safety, efficacy, ease of administration, storage and cost, so far, the only COVID-19 vaccine the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) has authorized for the use in the country are AstraZeneca, Sputnik V and quite recently Johnson and Johnson vaccines.
GNA