The President of the Republic, Louis Abinadersubmitted to the National Congress, via Senatea second amendment to contract signed by the Dominican State with Pfizer Free Zone Panama with the purpose that the pharmaceutical company delivers to the country the doses to combat COVID-19 pending delivery in the modality “pediatric vaccines” and not in the original contracted.
The president communicated the situation to Eduardo Estrella, President of the Upper House, so that this hemicycle knows the second modification to the contract, through which the Government contracted 9,999,990 units of the BNT162b2 messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine for the prevention of coronavirus from the aforementioned pharmaceutical company. He told her that he hopes to have the favorable vote of the legislators to be able to continue “with the successful execution of the National Vaccination Plan.”
“Of that total, 8,700,120 doses were delivered by the pharmaceutical company during the year 2021, with 1,299,870 units remaining pending,” the president told the President the Senate in a letter sent to him on the first of this month of April.
Each vaccine cost 12 dollars and the contract for its acquisition it was approved by the National Congress through resolution 116-21 dated May 5, 2021. The pediatric units have a cost of 15 dollars.
He referred that the Dominican Republic does not have vaccines against COVID-19 in the pediatric modality of the Pfizerso the Government and the company analyzed the possibility that the remaining doses would be delivered in that type.
“Pediatric vaccines, which in principle can be administered to children between 5 and 12 years of age, would be very useful to vaccinate that small part of the population that the National Vaccination Plan has not yet been able to reach”DR President
Abinader explained that, in this sense, the Executive Branch (of which he is its representative) signed the second amendment to the Contract Manufacturing and Supply with Pfizer Free Zone Panama, “which I submit to that honorable National Congress for its approval, in compliance with article 128, numeral 2, literal d, of the Constitution of the Republic.”
He told Estrella that the amendment to the contract contemplate that, of the 1,299,870 units pending delivery, the Dominican State receives 1,296,000 in the form of a “pediatric vaccine”, which would be delivered in this year 2022.
“The reduction of 3,870 doses is due to logistical reasons, so that the total amount contracted is a multiple of the number of doses that each batch of vaccines can contain.”, he detailed.
Abinader also reported to President the Senate that through the reference document “other clauses of the contract originally signed with Pfizer to adapt them to the expanded portfolio of products that the pharmaceutical company has, as well as to the new technical, logistical, commercial and legal requirements derived from the characteristics and specifications of such products”.
This second amendment to contract original with Pfizer It becomes effective upon prior approval by the National Congress, “in accordance with the constitutional and legal order of the Dominican Republic,” says the document sent by the president.
Special power to Minister of Health
Abinader He pointed out that in the name and on behalf of the Dominican State, the Minister of Public Health and Social Assistance signed the document, by virtue of the special power conferred on him on March 31 with number 19-22.
