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 In the Feb. 3 letter, seen by Reuters, the importer, a partner of
vaccine developer Sinovac Biotech, asked Ukrainian authorities to be
allowed to delay the first shipments of its COVID-19 vaccines to
April.
The importer, Ukraine-based Lekhim, cited delays in obtaining an
export licence from the Chinese government and the late adoption by
Ukraine's parliament of a special vaccine registration law.
"The consequences of these events were the delay in the coordination
of the delivery schedule between JSC Lekhim and Sinovac Biotech and
the postponement of the delivery of the vaccine in Ukraine," said
the letter.
Lekhim, which has a deal to deliver 1.9 million doses to the Ukraine
government from March, also wrote that it wanted to change the way
the shot's contracted efficacy rate of 70% is measured, though it
did not link this to its request for the delay.
Lekhim declined immediate comment. Sinovac and China's foreign
ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Ukraine's vaccination programme has lagged behind other European
countries in the global scramble for doses and has yet to start.
CHANGED WORDING
Sinovac's vaccine efficacy rates have varied in testing across
several countries. In larger-scale trials in Brazil, it was found to
be 50.65% effective against COVID-19; in a smaller one in Turkey, it
was 91.25%.
The variable data has raised questions about whether Ukraine would
approve Sinovac. Lekhim's agreement with the Ukraine government
stipulated that the vaccine must be at least 70% effective against
the COVID-19 disease.
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 But the proposed new wording of
the agreement would include in the 70% those
patients who suffered mild symptoms, the letter
showed. The new wording would also remove a
reference to the efficacy data needing to be
confirmed by the manufacturer. "Lekhim
wrote a letter with a request to defer the delivery schedules," a
health ministry source, who did not want to be quoted by name but is
familiar with the matter, told Reuters.
"They also ask to change the terms of the efficacy," said the
source, adding that "there may be problems" with meeting the
efficacy criteria.
The letter was addressed to Medical Procurement of Ukraine (MPU),
the state agency handling medical procurement contracts.
"We confirm [it]," MPU said in response to a query from Reuters
about whether Lekhim had requested delaying the vaccine shipments
and changing the efficacy terms, saying they had referred the matter
to the health ministry.
The health ministry's press service did not immediately respond to a
request for comment.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy publicly backed the use of
the Sinovac vaccine on Monday, pointing to it being used in Turkey.
(Reporting by Ilya Zhegulev and Natalia Zinets; additional reporting
by Pavel Polityuk; writing by Matthias Williams; editing by Susan
Fenton)
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