Korea receiving KOVAX support… Thailand is’poisonous’

Input 2021.02.08 14:35 | Revision 2021.02.08 14:37

While countries around the world are procuring vaccines through COVAX Facility, an international project for joint vaccine procurement and distribution, voices are pointing out the cost-effectiveness issue of the procurement method through COVAX in Thailand.

According to the Bangkok Post of the Thai media on the 7th, Nakhon Premsri, director of the National Vaccine Institute of Thailand, said on the previous day, “If you procure the Corona 19 vaccine through KoVax, you may have to wait a long time while buying at a higher price.

“With COVAX, we have to pay about 4 billion baht (about 149.3 billion won) even though we don’t know exactly what kind of vaccine and when we will receive it,” said Supabit Sirillak, director of the medical department under the Ministry of Public Health. “You can buy an unsatisfactory vaccine very expensive.”

Kovacs supplies vaccines to poor countries for free or inexpensively, but Thailand is one of the countries where you have to buy it at a reasonable price.

According to the director of Supa Nit, the lowest price for one dose of vaccine through COVAX is 310 Baht (about 11,500 won). Thai authorities said that after signing a contract to purchase 26 million doses of vaccine with AstraZeneca at the end of November last year, they ordered an additional 35 million doses of the vaccine from the company last January, and said that the price of one dose is about 150 Baht (about 5,500 won). The cost of the COVAX vaccine is more expensive than the AstraZeneca vaccine.

However, the Thai authorities said they are continuing to negotiate with Kobax and that if the conditions are met, they will procure 15 million units.

The Korean government is expected to secure at least 2.7 million doses of Corona 19 vaccine through COVAX by the first half of this year. The government has signed a contract with Kovacs to supply 10 million Corona 19 vaccines.

Regarding this, some point out that Korea, which has not secured a vaccine in advance, has taken up the supply of Pfizer vaccines to return to underdeveloped countries. This is because Kovacs’ original purpose was to provide free or low-cost vaccines to poor countries by international organizations and rich countries.

In fact, none of the 18 countries that receive Pfizer vaccines through COVAX have a gross domestic product (GDP) of more than $10,000, except for Maldives, a small island nation in the Indian Ocean. Korea alone is classified as an’advanced country’ with more than $30,000.

However, in the first quarter of this year, only AstraZeneca vaccine was available in Korea. The Pfizer vaccine purchased by the Korean government, not the amount of CoVax, will be supplied in the third quarter.