SPC to get Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines: Initial non-binding contract tomorrow
02 May 2021
SPC to get Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines: Initial non-binding contract tomorrow
02 May 2021
15K Sputnik V pilot stocks expected on Tuesday
Sri Lanka is scheduled to sign an initial agreement with Pfizer Inc., the bio-pharmaceutical company that manufactures the Pfizer-BioNTech anti-Covid-19 vaccine, tomorrow (3), The Sunday Morning learnt. According to State Pharmaceuticals Corporation (SPC) General Manager (GM) K.M.D.R. Dassanayake, the SPC will sign the heads of agreement – a non-binding agreement that sets out the key terms of the proposed agreement between the two parties. “Pfizer Inc. has already signed the heads of agreement and we received it on 30 April. We are signing it tomorrow and will send it back to Pfizer. This is only an initial agreement and not a purchasing agreement,” he told The Sunday Morning. When queried as to whether the SPC has finalised the price of a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech anti-Covid-19 vaccine prior to the signing of the said agreement, Dassanayake said that the price of a dose has been finalised and that it would cost around $ 6.75 per dose. Commenting on when the receipt of the stocks of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine would take place, Dassanayake noted that following the signing of the purchasing agreements, the vaccine stocks would be sent to Sri Lanka. Furthermore, referring to the Russian anti-Covid-19 vaccine Sputnik V, Dassanayake said that there was no delay in receiving the Sputnik V vaccine doses and that the first stock of 15,000 doses would be received on Tuesday (4). “Once we get the pilot stocks, we will send the feedback to Russia and then the other stocks would arrive in the country,” he added. However, Chief Epidemiologist Dr. Sudath Samaraweera acknowledged on 30 April that there was a slight delay in receiving the Sputnik V vaccines – a delay which he attributed to the public holidays in Russia.
