The details of the scandal of the Get vaccinated in Peru -470 people immunized since September for belonging to a network of privileges – are still boiling. The pharmaceutical Sinopharm offered in August to send the Peruvian government a separate batch of vaccines in experimental phase III and it was not an order from the Peruvian team in charge of the clinical trial of the product, according to the newspaper The Republic. In addition, two media reported that the Chinese company sent gift medical supplies to the Ministry of Health worth $ 860,000. All this while the South American country negotiated with this and other pharmaceutical companies the purchase of vaccines for the population.
The specialized publication Health with Magnifying Glass reported that donations from the Chinese state company – mechanical fans, oxygen devices, infrared thermometers and thousands of personal protective equipment, among others – arrived in three shipments in September, November and January 15. The first week of December, the then Minister of Health, Pilar Mazzetti, announced that they had reached an agreement in the negotiations with Pfizer, but days later it fell. Among the first officials to be vaccinated irregularly with the doses that the Chinese company sent outside of those destined for the clinical trial were negotiators from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Health for the acquisition of vaccines.
On January 7, President Francisco Sagasti announced the signing with Sinopharm of the purchase agreement for 38 million doses and the commitment to ship the first million vaccines. That shipment arrived in February and has served to immunize health personnel. ”The code of ethics of the public function has prohibitions to obtain undue advantages and to maintain interests in conflict; on the other hand, there is the criminal aspect: prosecutors can interpret the donation as an advance bribe ”, commented on this case Samuel Rotta, executive director of Proética, an NGO specialized in the fight against corruption.
When the Vacunagate scandal broke out in mid-February, the Peruvian authorities involved and the lead investigator of the clinical trial, Germán Málaga, pointed out that the additional batch of 3,200 doses – in addition to those required for the 12,000 volunteers – arrived at the request of the team. of scientists from the Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, in charge of the phase 3 study. However, according to diplomatic cables from the Embassy of Peru in China, a representative of Sinopharm offered the Government to send vials as a donation “for voluntary use by the team of the clinical trial and related individuals ”.
After consultations with the Ministry of Health and Malaga, they decided that it would be 2,000 units – the Chinese vaccine requires two doses. The Chinese agent said that it would send an additional 1,200 more to Chinese diplomats and businessmen of that nationality residing in the South American country. But when the batch of 2,000 units arrived in September, not only the members of the team that carried out the phase 3 clinical trial at the Cayetano Heredia University and the National University of San Marcos were immunized.
Then-president Martín Vizcarra requested a vaccine for himself, his wife and his brother, who were inoculated in October. The members of the negotiating committee for the purchase of vaccines, the then ministers of Health and Foreign Relations, employees of the supervising entity of clinical trials, and dozens of businessmen, politicians, university authorities and relatives of all the above benefited from the VIP vaccines.
According to the newspaper The Republic, the first to be vaccinated – outside the clinical trial – was Arturo Jarama, the main negotiator of the Foreign Ministry for the purchase of vials. He is one of the eight workers of that ministry under internal investigation and of the Prosecutor’s Office and the Comptroller’s Office. After an internal investigation, the Ministry of Health undertook to send the identity of 13 health officials who have responsibility in this case to the attorney general’s office specialized in public corruption. The Comptroller’s Office told EL PAÍS this Sunday that it will carry out a quick investigation, lasting about 30 days. “From an administrative point of view, it is up to the heads of the entities to which these officials belong to dictate the sanctions,” said a spokesman. If you find criminal or civil liability, you will send the information to the Public Prosecutor’s Office and attorney’s offices.
Ethics and science in pandemic
”The additional doses are absolutely unusual in the context of a clinical trial, and just that triggers the Get vaccinated and it is the underlying problem of this situation ”, comments the doctor and researcher Percy Mayta Tristán about the 3,200 doses ‘donated’ by Sinopharm. Like him, dozens of scientific researchers question whether the pharmaceutical company sent extra doses to those destined for the 12,000 volunteers in the study.
“The researchers should not have accepted the additional doses, the ethics committee should not have approved the protocol of the clinical trial – or its extension – when they included them, and the National Institute of Health (INS) should not have approved the trial”, notes the scientist . Mayta affirms that one of the lessons for the Peruvian scientific community is that one should not “accept the interference of politics in the management of a clinical trial.” The researcher, who was for six years scientific editor of the Peruvian Journal of Experimental Medicine and Health, adds that “rapid approvals -of clinical trials- in pandemic contexts have risks because some details can be escaped. For this reason, the monitoring and accompaniment process must be much closer ”.
source https://pledgetimes.com/sinopharm-sent-vip-vaccines-and-gifts-for-the-ministry-of-health-to-peru/
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