Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine can be imported from UK at $ 3-5

According to the Sri Lankan media and the Government, buying Oxford AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine is extremely difficult and expensive because of the surge of the pandemic in India. It was reported ‘Sri Lanka is facing a severe shortage of AstraZeneca vaccines as the producer in the neighbouring India failed to provide the promised stock due to the crisis in that country.’

After the first vaccine in January this year, around 600,000 people have been waiting to get the second jab for more than four months. According to the Oxford AstraZeneca company to get higher rates of efficacy, dosing intervals between two doses should be 90 days. 

To help the situation in Sri Lanka I spoke to one of the Executive Directors of AstraZeneca biopharmaceutical company on Wednesday 16 June and asked about the prices and availability of the vaccines.  He said: “The prices are between $ 3 and $ 5.”

Then I asked whether there was a different pricing for developed countries and developing countries. He said: “No, those are the global rates.” 

The next question I asked was about the availability and the time scale for supplying. “It depends, once we have the order we manufacture and send them to the destinations without delay. We have the capacity to do it,” he explained. Then I thanked him and said I was going to pass the information to Sri Lanka. 

During his stay in the UK this week, for G7 summit, American President Joe Biden ordered half a billion doses of AstraZeneca vaccine from the pharmaceutical company, to fight against the pandemic. I hope this is enough to understand the efficacy and the capacity.

The efficacy rate of the vaccine is more than 90%. I do not understand why the Government of Sri Lanka agreed to purchase Sinopharm vaccine at the rate of $ 15 for a jab and Sputnik V at $ 10 a dose when the country is facing severe financial hardships with foreign exchange.  

Desperate Sri Lankans have been convinced by the media and some health professionals, due to the surge of the pandemic in India, there is no way to get AstraZeneca and have to look for another alternatives i.e. State minister of Pharmaceutical Production, Supply and Regulation Professor Channa Jaya Sumana announced now he was waiting to get approval from the medical experts to give Pfizer vaccine as the second dose to the people those who had Oxford AstraZeneca as the first vaccine for COVID-19.

Sri Lanka has witnessed a surge of positive cases and deaths since April, mainly caused by celebrations and shopping during last April’s traditional New Year festival. The island has registered more than 228,255 cases and 2,315 (at lunch time on 16 June) confirmed deaths.

Rajasinghe Bandara

Operations Director – MTJ Global UK