The Sinovac vaccine, which is carrying the brand name Coronavac, is being sold in China for $29.75, or nearly $30, per dose, according to a Reuters report last Oct. 15. Other reports said Coronavac was likely to cost $59 per dose. To acquire 50 million doses at the lower end of Sinovac’s price range or nearly $30 per dose, the Philippines would need at least $1.5 billion or about P75 billion.
Sinovac, the Post said, “has acknowledged the bribery case involving its CEO, saying in regulatory filings that he cooperated with prosecutors and was not charged.”“The CEO said in testimony he could not refuse demands for money from a regulatory official,” Washington Post said in its report. It said that there had been no evidence that “any of the vaccines approved in cases involving bribery were faulty.” “But some medical experts say that extra scrutiny of Sinovac’s drug claims is justified, given its record of moral flexibility,” the Post said.Washington Post said details of the bribery cases involving Sinovac in China had been kept under wraps because of media censorship.
The Sinovac CEO, Yin Weidong, was not charged and still supervises its coronavirus vaccine production this year, the Post said. But in a recent annual report, released last April, Sinovac cleared its CEO, Yin Weidong, saying he was not charged with any offense “or improper conduct” and cooperated as a witness, the Post reported. “To our knowledge, the Chinese authorities have not commenced any legal proceedings or government inquiries against Mr. Yin,” Washington Post quoted the Sinovac report.
INQUIRER.NET also reported last Nov. 30 that Sinovac and another Chinese pharmaceutical company, Clover Biopharmaceuticals, were the first vaccine producers to pass an evaluation by a panel of Philippine vaccine experts.Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte had announced that funds would be made available to purchase vaccines once these have been developed. Still, he said there could not be enough for all Filipinos initially.
The Washington Post report said, “graft and weak transparency have long plagued China’s pharmaceutical industry,” but at no other time has the reliability of a vaccine maker from China “mattered this much to the rest of the world.” Sinovac’s history of bribery, the Post quoted Caplan as saying, could “alienate some potential customers.”
China and bribery is basically synonymous worldwide.
Kung tutoo ang sinasabi ni Duks at ni Duts, dapat i-prove nila at magpaturok na kaagad sila ng vaccine na ito from China, Dapat i-televise para makita ng mga mamamayan. No ifs or buts para maniwala yung mga tao.