Health Minister Zweli Mkhize has told Parliament that the government was paying $10 (about R144) a dose for Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson (J&J) vaccines, while the cost of the now aborted AstraZeneca vaccine was $5.35 a dose.
Mkhize also told lawmakers that they have received payment from the AU for the doses of AstraZeneca that were given to several countries on the continent.
The Serum Institute of India (SII) has repaid South Africa $2.6 million for the vaccines that were not delivered, said Mkhize.
The minister was on Wednesday briefing members of the National Assembly’s health committee on the latest developments in the roll-out of the vaccine. He said South Africa was expecting millions of doses of vaccine from Pfizer with the first shipment due to land in May.
J&J will also continue to deliver vaccines.
He said Pfizer has agreed to increase the number of doses from 20 million to 30 million and this will help increase the number of people who will be vaccinated.
Mkhize said they have also ensured that they paid for the vaccines.
“In response to the question asked about the different vaccine prices; the costs of the vaccine from Pfizer and J&J is $10 (R144) a dose. The cost of the AstraZeneca vaccine was $5.35 (R77) a dose. With regards to the AstraZeneca refund, I can confirm that in March already we received a payment from the AU for the 1 million doses sold to them. The amount paid to us is $5.2m (R75m). This was the actual cost of the vaccine minus freight.
“Last week we were then refunded by the SII for the 500 000 doses that were not delivered in the amount of $2.6m (R37m). We are therefore happy that we have avoided what could have been viewed as fruitless or wasteful expenditure,” said Mkhize.
POLITICAL BUREAU