CoronaVac May Be Four Times More Costly Than Flu Vaccine

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The CoronaVac, a vaccine against Covid-19 developed by the Chinese company Sinovac Life Sciences in partnership with the Butantan Institute in São Paulo, may be up to four times more costly than the flu vaccine, also produced by the Butantan.

A CoronaVac dose would cost the Ministry of Health US$10.30 (about R$59). By comparison, the flu immunizer dose is supplied for R$15.14.

The price for the CoronaVac was in a letter sent by Minister of Health General Eduardo Pazuello to the director of the Butantan Institute, Dimas Covas, last week, officializing the government’s plan to acquire 46 million doses of the vaccine. However, the potential purchase was soon unauthorized by President Jair Bolsonaro.

Should the agreement between the Ministry of Health and the Butantan Institute for the purchase of the vaccine against the novel coronavirus ever materialize, this may be the most expensive immunizer provided by the Institute to the government. Currently, the Butantan provides six vaccines for the National Immunization Program (PNI): influenza, HPV, hepatitis B, hepatitis A, DTPa (against diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis) and rabies. Of these, the most expensive is rabies, which costs R$51.61. The cheapest is the hepatitis B vaccine, which costs R$1.90 per dose.

As the CoronaVac immunization protocol requires the administration of two doses of the vaccine, this represents an even higher cost per person.