REUTERS
Crown Agents is also engaged in procuring vaccines for other countries, including Britain.
Ukrainian Health Minister Maksym Stepanov has said the UK-based Crown Agents will be purchasing COVID-19 vaccines for Ukraine.
"At a special meeting, the Cabinet of Ministers established that the Crown Agents international organization will be procuring COVID-19 vaccines. It will be authorized to conclude contracts in keeping with the preliminary negotiations held by the Health Ministry and the country's leadership, as well as logistical support of goods," he told a briefing in Kyiv on January 15, as reported by an UNIAN correspondent.
According to Stepanov, the said company is engaged in procuring COVID-19 vaccines for different countries, including the United Kingdom.
The minister stressed it was decided to change the procurement organization, namely State Enterprise "Medical Procurement of Ukraine" since its activities were extremely ineffective at the end of 2020. "I consider the organization of the process [of the vaccine procurement] by the company's management ineffective," he said.
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In March, the first batch with 8 million doses of the vaccine is expected to be shipped to Ukraine under the COVAX Facility. These doses are enough to vaccinate 4 million people as two jabs per person are required. Medics, senior citizens, and seriously ill patients will get vaccinated first.
On December 24, Health Minister Maksym Stepanov said that his ministry was working out a plan to increase the vaccine quota as part of the COVAX global initiative from 8 million to 16 million doses.
On December 22, Ukraine's Health Ministry approved a plan for vaccination of the population against COVID-19. The goal of this plan is to vaccinate at least 50% of the population of Ukraine (20 million people) in 2021-2022.
On December 30, the Ukrainian Health Ministry signed a contract for the supply of China's Sinovac Biotech COVID-19 vaccine to Ukraine. The purchase provides for 1,913,316 doses at UAH 504 (US$18) per dose. China plans to obtain permission to use the vaccine inside the country and abroad in January next year, and the vaccine will also be submitted for retraining to the World Health Organization (WHO) in February 2021.
The contract for supplies to the territory of Ukraine has been signed with Lekhim JSC, which, according to official confirmations from Sinovac Biotech, is the only authorized representative of the vaccine manufacturer in Ukraine.
Under the terms of the contract, the first batch of 700,000 doses will be delivered to Ukraine within 30 days after official registration in China, or by one of the competent authorities of the United States, Great Britain, the Swiss Confederation, Japan, Australia, Canada, Israel, India, Mexico, Brazil, or under a centralized procedure by the competent authority of the European Union.
On January 6, some 13 countries of the European Union called on the European Commission to provide access to COVID-19 vaccines for the Eastern Partnership (EaP) countries, including Ukraine.