THE FRENCH company Sanofi Pasteur will supply Slovakia with vaccines against novel H1N1 flu virus, or swine flu. The company and the State Material Reserves Administration signed the deal on November 30, the SITA newswire reported.
Based on the contract, the firm will supply 1 million H1N1 vaccines to Slovakia. The price per vaccine is €7.60. The first vaccines should be delivered by the end of this year while the second package should arrive by January 10, 2010. Delivery should be completed by February 8, the administration’s Ľubomír Urban announced. The administration selected the contractor through negotiated procedure without a contract notice.
The Health Ministry also announced that it would file a lawsuit against the head of the parliamentary health committee, Viliam Novotný (an MP for the opposition SDKÚ), for spreading false alarm. Novotný held a press conference on November 30 in which he criticised both the ministry and the Public Healthcare Office for allegedly failing to secure swine flu vaccines for citizens of Slovakia. Health Minister Richard Raši had protested against rumours that the ministry had failed to prepare for the arrival of the pandemic, SITA wrote.
