US biotech company Moderna has offered SA 20-million coronavirus vaccines, health activists claimed on Monday night.
Heath department deputy director-general Anban Pillay said he was bound by a non-disclosure agreement with Moderna and was not able to reveal details of the government’s discussion with the company.
Moderna’s two-dose Covid-19 vaccine has proven 94% effective against older lineages of Sars-COV-2 and works against the new variants detected recently in SA and the UK. But it is relatively expensive compared to the other vaccines the government has secured to date.
In a presentation to parliament in January, health minister Zweli Mkhize estimated the price of Moderna’s vaccine at R536 a dose. By contrast, Pfizer’s vaccine, which also uses mRNA technology, was at the time priced by the minister at R299. And the 1.5-million shots of AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine secured from the Serum Institute of India cost $5.25 (R78) a dose.
Rehad Desai from the C19 People’s Coalition, which brings together civic organisations and individuals focused on the coronavirus pandemic, said “a leading official” from Moderna had on Sunday indicated to Pillay that the company would be prepared to offer SA 20-million doses of Covid-19 vaccines, beginning in May. The official had asked Pillay to deal with the matter “in an urgent manner” because global demand was outstripping supply, he said.
Desai said he had seen e-mail correspondence confirming the offer from Moderna.
He called on the government to act quickly and transparently and to make sure the vaccines were procured at an affordable price.
Moderna had not responded to Business Day’s request for comment at the time of publication on Monday evening.
The SA Health Products Regulatory Authority’s latest update on Covid-19 vaccine applications submitted by manufacturers, published last week, does not include Moderna.
The People’s Vaccine Campaign, an initiative launched by the C19 People’s Coalition, called on the US government to compel biotech company Moderna and other coronavirus vaccine manufacturers it has funded to expand access to their products by sharing their know-how with other pharmaceutical companies.
The US government has helped fund the development of several coronavirus vaccines under “Operation Warp Speed”, including investments in Moderna’s mRNA Covid-19 shot. It also owns some of the intellectual property associated with the Moderna vaccine, according to the campaign.
In a letter sent to senior US health officials on Saturday, including to President Joe Bidens’s top coronavirus adviser, Anthony Fauci, it urged the US government to use its leverage to get Moderna to issue licences to pharmaceutical manufacturers to ramp up production, and to commit to indefinitely low prices. The letter was sent via Cape Town archbishop Thabo Makgoba.
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