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GCC Urged to Group Purchase to Cut Costs
SHARJAH — With the arrival of first batch of H1N1 vaccine in the UAE, a senior health official said that the vaccine had been purchased at a price of Dh75 per dose, adding that all GCC countries have been asked to make a group purchase for the next batch in order to bring down the costs.
Dr Tawfik Al Khoja, Director General of the Executive Board of the Health Ministers’ Council for GCC, told Khaleej Times on Sunday that group purchase would bring down the cost of the vaccine by a third, and that they can be obtained for Dh40-50 per dose when the next batch is ordered.
However, it is not clear how many doses of the vaccine were ordered in all, though some reports suggest that the number is nearly three million.
Earlier this month, pharma company GlaxoSmithKline delivered 40,000 doses of the promised 900,000 doses for this year. The remaining doses are expected to be delivered in monthly batches until late next year.
The official said that the group purchase will also ensure proper registration of the drug in the region. “The first purchases were done in a panicked state and that is the reason why all countries in the region bought the vaccines independently by paying a higher price,” explained Dr Khoja.
“The vaccine was in short supply and this created a competition among countries,” he added.
During a meeting held in Oman last week and attended by UAE, all GCC countries agreed to update their National Action Plans on H1N1 so as to prepare for the second wave of the pandemic expected to strike the region in January and February.
“The earlier plan does not address how to deal with crisis and emergencies and that is why we need to update the existing one,” said Dr Khoja.
The official said that the plan was being reviewed keeping in mind the impact of the disaster. “What are the alternatives if the disease took the shape of an endemic?” he asked. “We have to look into increasing the number of hospital beds and readying ICUs, availability of medicines, role of schools and the public health sector,” added Dr Khoja.
According to the recommendations passed during the meeting, the council agreed to administer a single dose of the vaccine per person as per the World Health Organisation and Arabian Union Health Protection agency recommendations.
It was also agreed that it was safe to administer a single dose of the vaccine to pregnant women. The issue of school closures, preparedness of Umrah and Haj and safety of the vaccine were among the other issues discussed at the meeting.
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