the minister of Public healthDaniel Rivera, referred this Friday to the vaccine contract to counter the COVID-19signed by the Dominican Government with the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca and assured that these biologicals will be replaced by other medicines.
“Thanks to the negotiations of the Vice President of the Republic, Raquel Peña, and part of the Cabinet, It has been achieved that these (the vaccines) will be replaced by other types of medications such as antihypertensives, special medications and even range from asthma to high-cost medications“, commented the official when approached by the press at the end of the walk of the seventh Health Route in Santo Domingo East.
On date on which the exchange will be effectivethe official stated that it will be released later.
Origin of the conflict
On November 23, 2020, the former Minister of Health, Plutarco Arias, announced the contract signed by the Dominican Government with the English pharmaceutical company AstraZenecain conjunction with the University of Oxford, to receive in February 2021 the first doses of vaccines anticovid to apply in the country.
The Chamber of Deputies signed the purchase agreement with the aforementioned pharmaceutical company for an amount of $40 million, equivalent to 10 million doses. That is, each unit dose at a cost of four dollars.
Subsequently, the Government alleged delay in the delivery of the vaccineswhich forced the Health Cabinet to negotiate with Pfizer y Sinovac in order to start the National Vaccination Plan.
Las vaccines They should have been delivered between March 21 and October 21, 2021, but the country only received 879,600 doses, according to the Deputy Minister of Collective Health, Eladio Pérez, in a meeting with the press on February 23, 2022.
In April, President Luis Abinader even stated that the situation would be international arbitration.
Finally, both parties initiated a negotiation to replace the vaccines missing for drugs of better benefit to the population, such as drugs for diabetes, cholesterol or hypertension.
