Pharmacy and Poisons Board (PPB) has submitted to the Senate’s Standing Committee on Health that the importers of Sputnik V vaccine are keen on re-exporting the vaccine.
According to the PPB Deputy Director Dominic Kariuki who made his submissions in a live proceeding Thursday, the private firm has since written to the Board seeking to re-export the Russian-manufactured drug.
This move by the private firm follows last Friday’s move by the Ministry of Health to ban importation, distribution and administration of COVID-19 vaccines by private entities.
“The letter of intent has already been given to PPB. The company is now in the process of officially applying to the normal a procedure of re-exportation of medicine,” said Kariuki during the sitting by the Health Committee.
The private sector further suffered a major blow after Health CAS Dr. Rashid Aman submitted to the same committee today that no private entity will be involved in the Phase 1 procurement of COVID-19 vaccines in Kenya.
He maintained that the private sector will only be allowed to join the vaccine roll-out plan mid-year in July once the government has set up a transparent and accountable system that will ensure Public Health Safety at all times.
Dr. Aman who made the submission on behalf of Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe however noted that those who had received the first dose of Sputnik V and were due for the second dose after three weeks would complete the vaccination.
“Mixing of vaccines is not recommended by both the World Health Organization (WHO) and other experts due to their different modes of action,” he said.
The CAS stated that so far about 400,000 people in Kenya have received the AstraZeneca vaccine from the one million doses imported last month
By Alice Gworo
