Public Health Minister Daniel Rivera announced late last week that the negotiations carried out by Vice President Raquel Peña and other members of the Health Cabinet have resulted in an agreement by which the AstraZeneca pharmaceutical company will substitute the undelivered but paid for Covid-19 vaccines with other medicines for ailments as asthma, blood pressure and some high-cost medicines.
All this comes about because in late November of 2020 the Ministry of Public Health signed an agreement to purchase 10 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine with the first doses to arrive in February of 2021. The Chamber of Deputies approved the deal and a US$40 million contract was signed. But the vaccines did not arrive and the country was obliged to enter hurried negotiations with the Chinese government that then supplied the Sinovac vaccines. Most Dominicans have received two Sinovac vaccines.
New dates were set for the AstraZeneca vaccines to arrive but once again, this did not happen and only 879,600 doses ever got here.
President Luis Abinader announced that the Dominican Republic would take AstraZeneca to an International Arbitration Court. However, the company entered into negotiations and as a result it was agreed to pharmaceutical company would provide diabetes, heart and cholesterol medicines and others in exchange for the vaccines.
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Diario Libre
El Dia
30 May 2022