Exclusive documents of the most expensive vaccine: the millionaire amount of the contract with Moderna, how much each dose costs and the details of the confidentiality clause

From 2022, Argentina will start receiving the first coronavirus vaccines developed by the Modern laboratory, with which the government has reached an agreement for 20 million doses. It is a serum that is already being applied in the country after the United States donated 3.5 million units to the management of Alberto Fernandez.

This donation ended up being essential for the government: not only did it allow it to begin vaccinating those under 18 with co-morbidities, but Moderna was approved for a second dose of Sputnik V; This enabled at least 1.5 million vaccination schedules to be completed. But apart from all this, the vaccine of this company has a peculiarity: it is the most expensive of all and will represent a significant expense for public funds.

As he may have known TN.com.ar Thanks to a request for access to public information, each dose of Moderna has a value of US $ 21.50, bringing the contract to a total of $ 430 million.

This news outlet also learned that, as in the case of AstraZeneca UK Limited, the government ordered an advance of $ 12,404,640,000. On July 21, the Nation’s Ministry of Health issued a payment order in favor of Moderna Suisse GmbH for that amount. This is only part of the contract, which amounts (when converted into pesos) to a number greater than the $ 41,065,000,000.

By issuing this payment order The portfolio led by Carla Vizzotti expressly authorized Banco Nación to make these more than 12 billion pesos available to the international laboratory. The same happened with the Covax mechanism, which required that a large part of the contract be paid in advance (approximately US $ 31,000,000). In this case, and in that of AstraZeneca (US $ 54,000,000 already paid), there were significant delays in the delivery of the sera.

Advance payment is a requirement established by most laboratories that develop vaccines to start working on the agreed production. As an example, it is a kind of “sign”. Once the first serums are provided, the others are credited.

In this way, Moderna became the vaccine with the highest unit value acquired by Argentina, above AstraZeneca (U $ S4); Sputnik V (U $ S 9.5); CovidShield (U $ S 4.1) and Sinopharm (U $ S 20 in the first of the contracts then U $ S15). At this time, the dose value of CanSino and Pfizer is unknown.

As with the rest of the contracts, the Moderna laboratory confidentiality clauses imposed at the time of signing the agreement.

These reach, according to the response given by the Ministry of Health, “all the technical, scientific and other information and knowledge, trade secrets, knowledge, technology, means, methods, processes, practices, formulas, instructions, skills, techniques, procedures, specifications, data, results and other materials, results of preclinical and clinical tests, manufacturing procedures, test procedures and purification techniques and isolation, and any tangible achievement of all of the above, and any scientific, manufacturing, marketing and business plans, any financial question and personnel related to a part or its products, sales, licensors, licensees, suppliers, buyers, employees, investors or present or future companies ”.

It is this confidentiality clause that makes it impossible to access a copy of the contract, in addition to knowing the stipulated delivery schedule and technical data on the vaccine.

Moderna is an mRNA vaccine that encodes the Spike (S) protein and has been shown to be over 90% effective against the coronavirus. It has been cleared by the EMA for use in minors, which has enabled Argentina to assign these doses to this age group.

The 20 million that will arrive in 2022 can be used to supplement the vaccination of minors who have not been inoculated with Pfizer’s serum or in third dose, provided that the national government is inclined to apply the reinforcements in doctors and more 60 years old with risk factors.

The contract with Moderna and Pfizer was sealed after the government introduced by executive order amendments to the Vaccine Act 27,573, which also began negotiations with Johnson & johnson, a company with which no agreement has yet been reached.

The adaptation of the regulations resulted in the deletion of the word “negligence” as assumption of responsibility of the manufacturers, and the creation of a reparation fund to deal with possible compensation.