Ukraine has signed a contract with U.S. pharmaceutical company Pfizer to supply an additional 10 million doses against coronavirus disease, Ukrainian Health Minister Maksym Stepanov has told President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky.
“After lengthy and difficult negotiations with Pfizer, we have reached an agreement on the supply of an additional 10 million doses. We signed the contract this night. That is, in total, we will receive 20 million doses of Pfizer vaccine during this calendar year,” Stepanov said.
The press service of the head of state said that according to the agreements, Ukraine will receive the first 500,000 doses under this contract in May-June 2021, 4.5 million doses in the third quarter (July-September), and the remaining 15 million doses in the fourth quarter of this year.
The conclusion of the agreement was made possible thanks to Zelensky’s direct communication with Pfizer CEO Albert Burla. The president personally coordinated the process of negotiations on the supply of the drug to Ukraine, because today the demand for vaccines in the world significantly exceeds production. Therefore, the Ukrainian government used various tools to provide the country with a high-quality vaccine. In particular, the strategic communications of the President and the constant operational communications of the Ministry of Health made it possible to sign a contract and receive a high-quality vaccine in Ukraine in significant volumes.
Zelensky thanked the CEO of Pfizer for helping Ukraine during the difficult times of the pandemic and noted the efforts of the representatives of Ukraine who accompanied the signing of the contract.
“This is a truly remarkable result. Now the task of the state is to ensure vaccination of the maximum number of citizens. It is also necessary to more actively explain to people the importance of vaccination against COVID-19, because this is the only way to overcome the pandemic, return to normal life and forget about quarantines forever,” the president said.
The European Union (EU) has invested EUR 1 billion in vaccine research and EUR 2.9 billion in expanding production capacity, the press service of the German Embassy in Kyiv said. “The study now needs support to protect the world from new strains of viruses. At the same time, Germany is also helping within the EU. The EU has already invested EUR 1 billion in vaccine research and EUR 2.9 billion in expanding production capacity,” the message reads.
The press service noted that the rapid development of vaccines against COVID-19 became possible thanks to international scientific cooperation.
“One example is the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine, which was the first to be registered in the EU. The German married couple of researchers Ozlem Tureci and Professor Ugur Sahin and their team developed a vaccine in Germany in a very short time with funding from the federal government,” the press service said.
Ukraine has received 367,200 doses of the AstraZeneca-SKBio coronavirus vaccine made in South Korea and delivered by the UNICEF and the WHO within the COVAX facility’s framework.
This batch will be used for vaccinating priority groups and people aged 65 and up, Ukrainian Deputy Health Minister, chief public health official Viktor Liashko told Interfax-Ukraine.
According to the UNICEF press release, Ukraine will receive vaccines for the inoculation of 8 million residents by the end of 2021 via the COVAX facility.
The UNICEF noted that all vaccines supplied via the COVAX facility complied with the WHO safety and efficacy criteria.
“Importantly, against the backdrop of fierce competition and struggle for access to vaccines in the world, COVAX has been confirming in practice the fulfillment of tasks for which this global partnership has been created – to ensure fair opportunities for all,” the press release quoted Liashko as saying.
As reported earlier, the UNICEF delivered 117,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine to Ukraine last week via the COVAX facility.
The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has allocated an additional UAH 6.5 billion for the purchase of vaccines against COVID-19, the Ministry of Finance said.
“On April 14, a government resolution was adopted on an additional direction from the state budget of funds in the amount of UAH 6.5 billion for the purchase of vaccines against acute respiratory disease COVID-19. This decision was agreed on the same day by the Verkhovna Rada budget committee,” the statement said.
As the ministry noted, taking into account the corresponding expenses in the past year, the total amount of state budget expenditures for the purchase of vaccines is UAH 11.4 billion.
The Ministry of Finance also indicated that it is planned to vaccinate 24 million people, or 70% of the adult population, by the end of 2021. However, this requires almost 6 million vaccinations every month from May to the end of the year (on average, over 250,000 vaccinations per day), which the Ministry of Finance considers a challenge for the Ministry of Health in the context of timely procurement and delivery to Ukraine, as well as organization of vaccination.
“For this, it is necessary to ensure the receipt of almost 48 million doses of vaccines, taking into account 8 million doses that should be received free of charge under the COVAX mechanism,” the ministry said.
The first batch of Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine in the amount of 117,000 doses has arrived in Ukraine on Friday as part of the global COVAX initiative, according to a COVAX press release.
According to the report, the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine will be used primarily to vaccinate personnel and residents of nursing homes, employees of the State Emergency Service and border guards
The visit of the Ukrainian delegation headed by Deputy Prime Minister for the reintegration of the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine Oleksiy Reznikov to Israel resulted in the solution of a number of important issues for the country, in particular, to overcome the COVID-19 pandemic. The corresponding statement was made by the Ambassador of Ukraine to Israel Yevhen Korniychuk on his Facebook page.
“I want to thank all the delegates for their active position in the work and significant contribution to the issue of reaching agreements in cooperation with Israel. Together, we solved a number of important issues for our country, in particular, interaction in the field of trade, investment, medicine and in overcoming the COVID-19 pandemic,” the diplomat said.
He said that an important aspect of the negotiations was the completion by Israel of the second phase of trials of its COVID-19 vaccine in mid-summer.
“The Ukrainian side proposed to conduct the third stage of testing in Ukraine with the subsequent possibility of producing a vaccine, including at our facilities. Israel is still studying this proposal and, I hope, it will be received positively. It is already clear that the pandemic of coronavirus infection will drag on for more than one year in the world. And the production of the vaccine, its availability for our citizens is a very sensitive and important issue for us,” Korniychuk said.
