Bolsonaro says Brazil didn’t spend cent on Bharat Bio vax deal under probe
President Jair Bolsonaro on Thursday said Brazil never paid for or received any doses of a coronavirus vaccine developed by Indian company Bharat Biotech, in response to allegations of irregularities in a deal that is under investigation.
Federal prosecutors a special Senate committee are investigating the deal for Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin shot, citing the fact that the government struck a speedy agreement when offers from Pfizer in 2020 at a lower price were ignored at the time.
“We didn’t spend one cent on Covaxin. We didn’t receive one dose of Covaxin. What sort of corruption is this?” Bolsonaro said.
The president pledged to take action if any corruption was discovered in his government. Bolsonaro said the price for the Bharat vaccines was broadly in line with other countries.
He said the government’s position has always been to only carry out purchases of vaccines after they are approved for use by federal health authority Anvisa.
Covaxin has yet to receive approval for public use, although it has received permission to conduct a phase 3 clinical trial via a Brazilian partner company.
On Wednesday, Bharat Biotech said in a statement that it had yet to provide vaccine supplies to Brazil that it has been consistent transparent in its pricing with all governments.
(Only the headline picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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