South Africa will pay $5.25/dose of AstraZeneca vaccine, a rate higher than what European Union member nations will pay.
According to Business Day, a local daily, South Africa will pay the Serum Institute of India (SII) a premium because of its upper middle-income status.
Anban Pillay, the Deputy Director-General of the Health Department said the SII informed them that Italy, Germany, Spain and other EU countries will pay less because of their significant contributions to research.
“We were advised that SII has applied a tiered pricing system, and given that (South Africa) is an upper-middle-income country, their price is $5.25. The explanation we were given for why other high-income countries have a lower price is that they have invested in the (research and development), hence the discount on the price,” Pillay was quoted as saying.
South Africa is due to get 1.5million doses of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine which is produced by the SII. The country has also made plans to get vaccines from Johnson&Johnson, who are still holing clinical trials on its reduced cold-chain level vaccines.
EU member-nations are reported to have negotiated lower price, in the region of $2.50/dose. They have made a request of 300million doses of the vaccine.
South Africa, in the past rejected Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine price with a dose quoted to be in the region of $10.15. The price quoted by the global pharmaceutical giant was tagged “prohibitive” by the Sout