Brazil probes Health Ministry deal to buy Covaxin vaccine

Brazil’s federal prosecutor’s office is investigating possible irregularities in a Health Ministry contract to purchase 20 million doses of the Covaxin vaccine manufactured by Indian laboratory Bharat Biotech

Associated Press -- Brazil's federal prosecutor’s office is investigating possible irregularities in a Health Ministry contract to purchase 20 million doses of the Covaxin vaccine manufactured by Indian laboratory Bharat Biotech. The agreement signed in February commits the ministry to pay $320 million - at a cost of $15 per vaccine dose - to Precisa Medicamentos, the representative of Bharat Biotech in Brazil, according to a document sent to The Associated Press by the attorney general's press office. The price per dose, which was higher than for other COVID-19 vaccines, drew prosecutors attention along with ministry officials apparently ignoring a history of alleged irregularities by Precisa associates in previous contracts with the federal government. Precisa said in a statement the vaccine price agreed to with Brazil's Health Ministry was the same as the price negotiated with 13 other countries and that the deal “followed all formal paths and was carried out transparently.”