Pursuant to the task of President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Ministry of Health has signed a contract to supply the Sinovac Biotech vaccine against COVID-19 to the territory of Ukraine as soon as possible.
The Ministry of Health has been negotiating since September 2020. The difficulty in negotiating is due to the fierce global competition for truly high-quality and safe vaccines. All civilized nations of the world, without exception, are trying to reach an agreement on the purchase of such a vaccine in an environment where reliable manufacturers cannot yet fully meet the global demand.
Ukraine will use the Sinovac Biotech vaccine to protect primarily those citizens who are at critical risk of infection and those who perform critical functions in the fight against the pandemic. Vaccination will be free.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy noted that the contract was signed with an experienced vaccine manufacturer.
"The key thing is that we conducted active months-long negotiations and reached a concrete result. In a short time we will start a large-scale state vaccination program. "We urgently need to protect the most "risky" social groups and the state will definitely fulfill this task," the President said.
The agreement on the supply to the territory of our country has been signed with the Ukrainian pharmaceutical company JSC Lekhim, which, according to the official confirmation of Sinovac Biotech, is the only authorized representative of the vaccine manufacturer in Ukraine. It’s about the purchase of 1,913,316 doses at a price of UAH 504 per dose.
Under the terms of the agreement, the first batch of the vaccine in the amount of 700 thousand 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, Swiss Confederation, Japan, Australia, Canada, Israel, India, Mexico, Brazil, or under a centralized procedure by the competent authority of the European Union.
This supply will be carried out separately from the COVAX mechanism, which guarantees our country 8 million doses of the vaccine free of charge.
Ukraine continues an active negotiation process with all reliable manufacturers in order to increase Ukrainians' access to an efficient and safe vaccine.