Pharmaceutical giants, Pfizer has offered South Africa the COVID-19 vaccine at $10 per dose but the government of the country says it can’t afford the price.
Pfizer and BioNTech are one of the COVID-19 producers the South African government has approached for vaccines.
The price quoted by Pfizer is reported to be about half of what’s obtainable in the United States. This is based on South Africa’s status as a middle-income country.
Some of the companies approached by the South African government will also run trials of the vaccine in the country before sales.
While talks are still in the works, with no agreements reached yet, Bloomberg reports that the South African government has said Pfizer’s vaccine needs very cold storage equipment.
At least 20 countries have started incoculating their populations, while African countries like Nigeria and South Africa are expected to start in the second quarter of the year.
“Factors that will be taken into account include the suitability for the South African context,” the South African presidency said. “The cost is also prohibitive.”
South Africa has had Africa’s highest number of infections at more than 1 million. It has however kept its case fatality rate at lower than 3% with almost 30,000 deaths.