Health triggered PGR, Justice and Controllership for price of Coronavac

The Ministry of Health asked the PGR (Attorney General’s Office), the Ministry of Justice and the CGU (Comptroller General of the Union) to investigate the price of the Coronavac vaccine offered by the Butantan Institute.

The ministry pointed out that the agency linked to the São Paulo government sold each dose for US$ 10.30 (about R$ 55.50; all conversions refer to the most recent exchange rate of the dollar), while the Covax Facility, a consortium linked to the WHO (World Health Organization), offered Brazil the same vaccine for about half the price.

The official letters to the control bodies were sent from July to November 2021. Interlocutors of the portfolio say, in a context of height of the CPI of Covid, that the determination was to pass on any sign of divergence in the contracts.

In response to Health, last year, Butantan said that there is no way to compare the values, as it delivered 100 million doses to the federal government. The cheapest proposal was 500,000 units, according to the laboratory.

The institute also said that it was necessary to observe the economic context of the contracts, with a six-month difference.

Sought, the PGR confirmed that the procedure is under analysis, but under secrecy. In the same vein, the CGU said that it analyzes vaccine procurement processes, but that, as they are still in progress, it cannot provide more information. The PF closed the case.

Butantan told the leaf that “has not received any official statement of the investigation from the Federal Government”.

The negotiations on Coronavac were the subject of dispute between Bolsonaro (PL) and São Paulo governor João Doria (PSDB) during the pandemic.

The president, who has always behaved in a denialist manner in relation to Covid-19, even ordered the cancellation of the purchase of 60 million doses and called the immunizer the “Chinese Doria vaccine”. Bolsonaro even celebrated the interruption of clinical studies and continues to distort data to question the safety of the vaccine.

Doria, on the other hand, acted in line with the recommendations of the experts, based on scientific evidence. He seeks, however, to associate his image with the bet he made on Coronavac to boost his candidacy for president. The governor inflated data on the effectiveness of the vaccine before Anvisa released the use of doses.

The Health affirms, in letters obtained by the leaf, which on July 9 received an offer from Covax with a lower price from Coronavac than that paid to Butantan months before.

On the 19th of the same month, the ministry opened up questions about the price of the vaccine, in a document sent to Butantan.

“It is necessary to justify the difference in prices, given that it has been rigorously required, by the control bodies, a reasoned justification about the economic advantage regarding the values ​​​​practiced in the contracts”, said Saúde.

On July 23, before receiving a response from Butantan, the ministry headed by Marcelo Queiroga delivered information on Coronavac prices to CGU and the Ministry of Justice, for “knowledge and adoption of measures deemed relevant.”

The day before, President Jair Bolsonaro had said that he asked Queiroga to call these bodies “so that the reason for the half price now, which happened with Butantan, to be investigated”.

The Ministry of Justice called the Federal Police, which said, in a statement, that it had not found “information that could constitute news of crime and that would enable the initiation of an investigation by police investigation”.

“As the file was forwarded to the CGU, the competent control body to audit the contract, the file was closed at the PF and will be reopened for a new analysis if there is a detection of contractual or administrative irregularity in relation to the unit prices informed”, said the corporation. .

The president of the Butantan Foundation, Rui Curi, answered questions from Saúde on July 28, in a seven-page letter.

“This consortium works for the acquisition and distribution of vaccines against Covid-19 for low-income and highly vulnerable countries, that is, it has exclusively social purposes and even so, it should be noted, the price of the dose practiced by the Butantan Foundation for delivery of its vaccines was lower than that of Covax acquired by the Ministry of Health”, said Curi.

According to the Butantan document, the vaccine sold to the Bolsonaro government cost US$ 10.30, while the value of each dose in a contract signed by the ministry with Covax, at the end of 2020, was US$ 10.80 (about of BRL 58.20).

Curi also says that it is not possible to compare prices without analyzing historical context and conditions of offer of the items.

“Be sure that you cannot compare the price of equipment, whatever it is, that is practiced by a company today [julho] with the price charged by the same company in 2020, when the pandemic began, as the circumstances are different and give rise to different plans of action”, he added.

Despite the response, Saúde referred the case to the office of Augusto Aras, in November 2021.

Brazil joined the Covax Facility consortium through a R$ 2.5 billion contract. The forecast was to purchase 42.5 million vaccines for about US$ 10.9 each dose, according to an estimate by Health in October of that year.

Joining the consortium had a modest impact on the SUS immunization campaign. The WHO initiative focused efforts on vaccine deliveries to the poorest countries and put distribution to Brazil in the background, which closed larger contracts directly with pharmaceutical companies.

Of the 407.4 million vaccines delivered to the government so far, about 13.9 million were from Covax.

The government paid around R$ 1.2 billion for the contract and made an agreement for the consortium to redirect the remaining doses that were expected to other countries.

The Ministry of Health received 3.9 million doses of Coronavac via the Covax Facility. According to the folder, the proposal to deliver these doses was made official in August.

When contacted, the folder did not explain whether it paid around US$ 5 (R$ 26.95) or around US$ 10 (R$ 53.90) for these doses.

The folder also did not point out the differences between the July proposal, cited in a letter, which Butantan says is 500,000 doses, and the August proposal, which led to the purchase of 3.9 million Coronavac vaccines.

A leaf found, however, that the ministry paid around US$ 5, plus approximately US$ 2 (R$ 10.78) for shipping. Interlocutors of the folder, privately, deny that there was a proposal of 500 thousand doses.

Sought, the Gavi Alliance did not inform prices and immunization agreements. In a note sent to the report, he said that Covax is in negotiations with several vaccine producers, and that disclosing information about these agreements could jeopardize future negotiations. However, Unicef ​​will publish all the details in the future, he said, without giving a date.

In response to questions from Saúde, the president of the Butantan Foundation said that the question about the composition of the price of Coronavac “shows total detachment from reality”. He argued that these values ​​had already been presented in meetings with the ministry.

“The Butantan Foundation does not seek profits in its operations, which allows it to adjust its prices to the reality of the national public market, as it has been doing for decades with the supply of serums and vaccines for the PNI”, he said.

“The Ministry of Health itself has not yet received all of the 42 million doses purchased from Covax, among which none of them were manufactured by the Butantan Institute or Sinovac, and others are already being offered by the aforementioned consortium?”, Curi said at the time.

The entity’s president also said that the government’s “delay” in purchasing vaccines “certainly caused damage to the health of the Brazilian people.”

In the same response, the São Paulo laboratory sent a Coronavac cost spreadsheet to Saúde. The purchase of the “imported product” for the manufacture of the vaccine accounts for 66.41% of the value of the immunizer, according to the table.

Subsequently, the highest expenditure is on research and development (28.74%). This percentage was one of the points that caught the attention of technicians from the Ministry of Health. For them, the pricing of Coronavac was still not clear.

The Ministry of Health and Butantan are now discussing a contract for 7 million doses of Coronavac. The idea is to use these vaccines in the public aged 6 to 17 years.

Butantan’s current offer is US$ 7.30 (R$ 39.35) per dose, found leaf with authorities accompanying the negotiation. The volume and composition of the immunizer are the same as for adults, offered last year.