According to the people familiar with the procurement process, the African Union will pay three times more for the Russian Sputnik V-jab than for the Oxford / AstraZeneca and Novavax vaccines.
The price of $ 9.75 per dose for shots of the 300 million Russian vaccine, developed by the state-run Gamaleya Institute, undermines Moscow’s argument that it offers affordable stings to countries not priced with Western pharmaceutical groups. .
The transactions entered into by the AU, which is emerging as one of the largest vaccine buyers in the world, offer a rare insight into how comparative prices compare, a subject manufacturer has tried to keep out of the spotlight.
“Africa is a key market for Sputnik V,” said the Russian Direct Investment Fund, a Kremlin-run wealth fund that oversees Sputnik V’s foreign sales. “Our international price of just under $ 10 per dose is the same for all markets.”
Sputnik V receivers require two doses, which means the cost per individual is just under $ 20.
RDIF boasts that the cost of the Russian jab is ‘twice as low as that of other vaccines with a similar efficiency rate’, and that the transactions with poorer countries are in contrast to other manufacturers who have put wealthy countries first.
Kirill Dmitriev, RDIF’s chief executive, told the Financial Times: “Countries see, you know, huge double standards from some of the Western countries that have promised equal access and basically just buy everything for themselves. And they see significant inequality in the distribution of vaccines to benefit wealthy countries. . . This is honestly unethical. ”
The price of the Russian vaccine, which will only start arriving in Africa in May, compares to the dose of $ 3 per year that the AU, according to the people known, agreed for the Oxford / AstraZeneca and Novavax jabs. with AU acquisition.
The AU pays $ 6.75 per dose for the BioNTech / Pfizer vaccine and $ 10 for Johnson & Johnson’s, a single dose product. It does not buy any of Moderna’s dual vaccinations, which cost between $ 32 and $ 37 per dose.
In addition to 300 million Sputnik V doses, the AU said it had received preliminary orders for 670 million doses of other pushes. It buys vaccines on behalf of member states to supplement the stock of Covax, a facility supported by the World Health Organization that offers free vaccines to 92 countries, including many in Africa.
The AU declined to comment on prices.
According to RDIF, the efficiency, cost and ease of storage of the vaccine is 92 percent ‘unique’. But scientists from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration confirmed this week that data show that J & J’s jab – which can also be stored in a normal refrigerator – has serious or critical illnesses in 86 percent of U.S. participants and 82 percent in South Africa. Africa occurs, where the 501 .V2 variant was common. Because only one survey of the J&J vaccine is needed, that would be $ 10 for almost half the price of Sputnik V.
The Oxford / AstraZeneca jab showed efficacy of approximately 70 percent in clinical trials, while the BioNTech / Pfizer product, which should be stored frozen, showed an efficacy of 95 percent.
African governments are disappointed with the slow pace of vaccine arrival and in some cases have been nearly costly in securing early supplies. South Africa ordered 1.5 million doses of SII Oxford / AstraZeneca jab at $ 5.25 per dose, but later the deployment was halted after discovering that the shot could not prevent mild to moderate cases caused by the 501.V2 variant first discovered in the country.
This week, the first AstraZeneca vaccine supplied by Covax arrived in Africa when Ghana received 600,000 doses. Covax said it pays $ 3 per dose of jab, made in India.
Covax originally hoped to distribute 15 million doses of vaccine to Africa this month, with a further 40 million in March, although the timetable appears to have expired. It promised to give by the end of the year doses sufficient to vaccinate at least 20 percent of the population of qualifying countries.
David Malpass, president of the World Bank, said it was true that manufacturers were diverting supplies to richer countries that were paying more. He asked for less secrecy.
“We need transparency about their contracts with Covax and the doses that Covax has available to developing countries,” he said. “That’s the key to meeting the delivery schedules.”
African governments have access to a $ 2 billion vaccine facility provided by the Cairo-based African Export-Import Bank as well as World Bank financing.
China has so far provided few doses to Africa, raising questions about possible restrictions on Chinese supply. Beijing donated 200,000 doses to Zimbabwe this month, an almost bankrupt country with which it has close but tense relations.
Additional reporting by Sarah Neville in London, Stephanie Findlay in New Delhi, Hannah Kuchler in New York and Joe Miller in Frankfurt