Ukrainian pharmaceutical company Lekhim will supply the nation with 5 million doses of Chinese COVID-19 vaccine in April–May, the company announced on Jan. 11.
Lekhim will supply the vaccine produced by Chinese biopharmaceutical company Sinovac Biotech in 2021 along with 1.9 million doses the company had previously agreed to bring from China to Ukraine.
The firm, which couldn’t be immediately reached for comment, hasn’t specified the price of the vaccines. However, one shot from the previous 1.9-million-dose batch will be purchased for under $18 apiece, according to e-procurement system ProZorro.
Lekhim has also become the exclusive supplier of this vaccine in Ukraine after it signed a 5-year memorandum of cooperation with the Chinese. From now on, the health ministry will have to buy all the vaccines from Sinovac Biotech through Lekhim.
Meanwhile, the company has also announced it will start the mass production of the vaccine in Ukraine’s eastern city of Kharkiv in 2022. And starting in 2025, it plans to locally produce all available by that time coronavirus vaccines.
Kseniya Kvitka, spokesperson of state firm Medical Procurement of Ukraine, told the Kyiv Post that using a private firm for procuring COVID-19 vaccines is a “frequent government procurement pattern” that can ensure the safety of the process.
“Procuring the vaccine through a private company should not be associated with any risks, since there are existing arrangements to protect the state budget and guarantee the high quality of the vaccine being delivered,” Kvitka said.
Meanwhile, the efficacy of the Sinovac vaccine remains disputable.
After a large-scale clinical trial of the Sinovac vaccine, Brazilian officials claimed that its efficiency rate is at a high level of 78%, the New York Times reported on Jan. 7. Several days later, on Jan. 11, Indonesia said that a local trial showed an efficacy of 65%. A month ago, Turkey stated that the vaccine was 91.25% efficient.
However, all the calculations remain speculative until more data about Sinovac trials are published.
The current contract for 5 million doses is the second agreement Lekhim has negotiated to supply COVID-19 vaccines to Ukraine. On Dec. 30, President Volodymyr Zelensky announced Lekhim would bring to Ukraine 1.9 million doses.
Before that, on Dec. 12, Deputy Minister of Health Viktor Lyashko reported that Ukraine had agreed with COVAX, the global coronavirus vaccine alliance, to receive over 8 million doses for free.
Read more: COVAX to give Ukraine 8 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine for free
According to Health Minister Maksym Stepanov, Ukraine will need to vaccinate at least 9.9 out of 40 million of its citizens to develop herd immunity.
At the same time, each person requires two shots to ensure maximum possible protection. This may mean that Ukraine or a Ukrainian company still need to procure at least 2.5 million doses.
Ukraine is currently undergoing a 17-day lockdown, which started on Jan. 8 and will last through Jan. 24 to stop the spread of the coronavirus in the country, where about 6,000 new cases are reported daily.
While the lockdown is in place, all restaurants, stores that don’t sell groceries, cinemas, gyms and fitness centers have to remain closed.
The quarantine measures are the only option for Ukraine to curb the spread of the virus until Ukraine launches a mass vaccination campaign.
Read more: New lockdown begins on Jan 8: What’s allowed and what’s not
