Public interest forced govt into lopsided Covid-19 vaccines deal: Lukanisman

 

PARLIAMENT | Due to the monopolisation of Covid-19 vaccine manufacturers in the early stages of the pandemic, Malaysia was forced into signing “lopsided” agreements in order to procure them.

Deputy Health Minister Lukanisman Awang Sauni cited public interest in defence of the government’s decision to go ahead with the procurement despite advice by the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) that the terms were not favourable.

He then revealed to the Dewan Rakyat today that vaccine manufacturers made countries sign non-disclosure agreements (NDA), which in turn prevented the government from publicising the cost of vaccines.

“Based on checks, all countries negotiating with vaccine production companies - such as Pfizer - were made to sign a confidential disclosure agreement (CDA) and later on a binding term sheet (BTS) before a manufacturing and supply agreement was signed.

“If Malaysia did not sign these documents, any early negotiations such as the terms of agreement or the active ingredients (in the vaccines) would not have been shared with the Malaysian government.

“The vaccine procurement process which involved the Health Ministry, Finance Ministry, and the AGC was something that could not be expected but had to be done,” Lukanisman (above) said during his wind-up speech on the Health Ministry’s white paper on vaccine procurement today.

In response to Hassan Abdul Karim’s (Harapan-Pasir Gudang) query as to why the government proceeded to sign a “lopsided” contract that only favoured the vaccine manufacturer, he stressed that it was to protect the people’s safety.

“The Covid-19 pandemic was literally a life-and-death issue. The government made the decision to go ahead (with procuring the vaccines) even if it (the contract) didn’t favour us to protect the rakyat from more severe infections, and fatal complications, and to ensure 80 percent herd immunity can be achieved quickly,” he said. 

The deputy health minister added that the agreement Malaysia had entered into with vaccine manufacturers was a “global template” used by all governments procuring the vaccines.

“The Covid-19 vaccine was dominated by vaccine manufacturers in the market, which gave them the opportunity to set terms that favoured them,” he said.

Malaysia received its first batch of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines on Feb 21, 2021. A total of 312,390 doses of the vaccines were welcomed by then-health minister Dr Adham Baba. 

Almost a week later, it received 200 litres of the Sinovac vaccine. 

Earlier, Dzulkefly Ahmad (Harapan-Kuala Selangor) demanded that the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) inquire about the true cost behind Pharmaniaga Berhad’s Covid-19 vaccines, despite the NDAs signed. 

Lukanisman responded that procurement costs for each vaccine were revealed to the PAC during a proceeding held on Aug 1, 2021. - Mkini