Question NW413 to the Minister of Health
11 March 2021 - NW413
Chirwa, Ms NN to ask the Minister of Health
Whether he will furnish Ms N N Chirwa with the full, relevant details on the final agreement stages with the pharmaceutical company, Johnson & Johnson, that he alluded to on Wednesday, 10 February 2021, in the Portfolio Committee on Health with regard to the (a) date on which the meetings between the specified company and the Government took place, (b) issues that were negotiated during all the proceedings with the company and (c) way forward in relation to procuring the specified vaccine; if not, why not; if so, what are the relevant details in each case?
Reply:
As I had indicated previously the discussion held between Johnson&Johnson is subject to a non-disclosure agreement that government had to sign off on before discussions regarding access to them could be held. While we would certainly prefer to disclose as much information as possible this condition of non-disclosure is in place from all manufacturers. Nevertheless we can share some information with the Honourable Member.
(a) There were six formal meetings between Johnson&Johnson and the Department of Health between June 2020 and December 2020. In the period 1 January 2021 and 1 March 2021 there have also been six formal meetings. In addition, there has been significant exchange of email correspondence between officials and Johnson&Johnson.
(b) While there were various issues discussed in the meetings over the past 9 months the key issues are the following:
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- The characteristics of the vaccine-type of vaccine, storage, mechanism of action, dosing, administration requirements;
- The anticipated date for completion of the phase 3 study;
- The anticipated quantity of vaccine that can be delivered and the timelines for delivery;
- The price of the vaccine;
- The conditions in the advanced purchase agreement including liability, payment conditions, delivery dates, penalty clauses;
- Access to the excess Johnson&Johnson trial doses following the pausing of the Astra Zeneca vaccine rollout;
- Structure of the phase 3b study, logistics, reporting co-ordination, dose delivery dates.
- The proposed contractual agreement from Johnson&Johnson has been reviewed by National Treasury and concurrence has been obtained. The agreement has been signed off for 11million doses with an option for an additional 20m doses based on availability of stock. The Johnson&Johnson vaccine is the most cost-effective vaccine for the following reasons:
- it provides high level of protection against hospitalisation and death from clinical studies in South Africa;
- It is effective against the 501Y.V2 variant;
- Single dose vaccine;
- It is stored at fridge temperature;
- Price is lower compared to other vaccines
END.