  One million doses will cover half a million people because of two applications, which is the recommended requirement for each person. - AstraZeneca photo - |
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 Published Friday, November 13, 2020 Costa
Rica signs $4 million-plus
agreement to purchase AstraZeneca vaccine By the A.M. Costa Rica staff The government signed an agreement with the British-Swedish multinational pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical company, AstraZeneca for purchasing one million doses of its candidate vaccine against covid-19, AZD1222, which is being developed together with the University of Oxford in England, the government announced on Thursday. According to the government, each dose will be priced at $4, so the estimated price of this purchase is at least $4 million, without including additional distribution costs. Vaccine purchases would be made with funds from the National Emergency Fund that is being used to face the crisis caused by the pandemic. “This important advance in preparing to vaccinate the population when vaccines are available is the result of the great work that the National Vaccine Commission has been developing and reflects our primary commitment to protect the health and life of citizens against this pandemic, using all the means at our disposal,” President Carlos Alvarado said during the announcement of the AstraZeneca agreement. One million doses will cover half a million people because of two applications, which is the recommended requirement for each person. It is estimated that the vaccine will be available beginning the first quarter of 2021, as long as the ongoing clinical trials are successful and the vaccine is approved by international regulatory organizations. Phase II / III clinical trials are underway in the United Kingdom, the United States and Brazil. While Phase I / II clinical trials are ongoing in South Africa, Japan, Kenya and Russia, the government said in its statement. These trials will determine the protection of the vaccine against covid-19, as well as the safety and immune response in up to 50,000 volunteers worldwide. This agreement is part of Costa Rica's adherence to the COVAX-Facility program, which provides coverage for 1 million people. Also, the recent agreement with Pfizer and BioNTech for the immunization of 1.5 million people. In total, the government hopes to vaccinate more than three of the five million people living in the country. In October, authorities of the Ministry of Health announced the Pfizer and BioNTech agreement for the purchase of 3 million doses of BNT162b2 vaccine against covid-19. According to the ministry, this vaccine is mRNA-based, patented by BioNTech and endorsed by Pfizer, and it will be produced after proving success from clinical studies and regulations. The cost of these purchased vaccines has not been disclosed due to the commercial confidentiality agreement required by the companies, the government said. The National Emergency Fund is paying for the vaccines, with an estimate of receiving the treatment gradually in the first quarter of 2021. This depends on the clinical success demonstrated in these treatments. The government joined the COVAX-Facility program coordinated by the World Health Organization, WHO. In the case of COVAX agreement, the first advance payment of $6,316,560 or 30% of the cost was scheduled to be made during October, the government said in its statement. The payment is based on the price that was set by COVAX at $10.55 per dose. The price includes factory costs, access, financing, risk mitigation and operating costs. COVAX-Facility is led by GAVI-Alliance, which is a private non-profit foundation of the WHO, the United Nations Children's Fund is a United Nations, UNICEF, the Bill and Melinda GATES Foundation and the World Bank. Time is running for scientists in the race to find a cure for covid-19, which continues causing mass global deaths. In Costa Rica, the Health Ministry announced on Thursday the most up-to-date statistics on the evolution of the virus in the country: • 1,171 new covid-19 cases, bringing the total to 45,157 active cases. • 18,385 foreign-born people have been infected with a total of 120,939 cases since March, approximately 15% of the total cases. Of these, authorities confirmed the death of 32 foreign-born patients. • 489 patients are being treated in public hospitals, where 191 patients are in ICU’s in delicate health conditions (ages range from a 25-year-old to a 90-year-old). And 298 patients are in recovery rooms. Many of the remaining infected patients are quarantined in their homes. • 74,255 coronavirus patients have fully recovered, which is a 61.4% recovery rate of the total cases since March. • 1,527 deaths of people infected with covid-19, approximately 1.3% death rate of the total cases since March. Of these 577 women and 950 men. The ages range from a 9-year-old to a 101-year-old person. Since October authorities stopped providing the number of people who have been ruled out and the number of medical covid-19 tests that have been made. Readers can see the updated number of total patients in each district at the National Distance Education University on its Covid-19 Map.  According to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering, CSSE, at Johns Hopkins University, the pandemic has killed 1,292,279 people worldwide. ------------------------------ What have you heard about your government’s plans for accessibility to the vaccine against covid-19? We would like to know your thoughts on this story. Send your comments to news@amcostarica.com |
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