Kuwait rejects Moderna’s conditions for supplying covid vaccine

Kuwait’s Health Ministry yesterday rejected the conditions proposed by the American company, Moderna, under which it would supply the Gulf state with the coronavirus vaccine.

Official sources told Al-Qabas that the conditions had included the company’s failure to supply “specific quantities of the vaccine, as well as the lack of the ministry’s right to return 30 per cent of the doses in case they were not used.”

“Following the approval and the arrival of the first of the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine batch, the ministry has been monitoring the latest developments in clinical trials against the results of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which is currently being developed and is expected to be approved and licensed within two weeks,” the sources pointed out.

They added that the ministry was in contact with Russian, Chinese, and American vaccine manufacturers, noting that it had not settled on any of the offers except from Pfizer and AstraZeneca. “There is a possibility for the ministry to import some of the required vaccines from Johnson & Johnson and Moderna when the negotiations resume,” the sources noted.

So far, a total of 162,282 people have contracted coronavirus in Kuwait, 957 of whom have died, and 155,303 others have recovered, according to the US’ Worldometers.

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