The department of health on Wednesday declined to provide any comments regarding why they continued to hide the amount taxpayers were charged for Pfizer vaccines.According to Blacklock’s Reporter, a copy of the 2020 Pfizer contract, obtained through Access to Information by The Canadian Independent, had the "price and payment" schedule section edited out or redacted.The Manufacturing and Supply Agreement, which had many parts censored, was 59 pages and labelled "confidential."The cabinet has repeatedly stated that they were obligated to keep the terms of the agreement with Pfizer confidential.“I want to be clear that I respect and believe strongly in accountability and transparency, and at the same time, I want to make sure our relationships with our vaccine suppliers are not undermined,” then-Public Works Minister Anita Anand said in 2021 testimony at the Commons Government Operations committee.“When will the department divulge the costs per unit for the vaccine contracts?” asked New Democrat MP Matthew Green (Hamilton Centre, ON). “The total envelope of funds for vaccines is about $8 billion,” replied Anand.Pfizer Canada President Najah Sampson told the Commons Public Accounts committee that the agreement details were kept confidential and that even MPs could not access them.“Disclosure of our confidential agreement would be an extraordinary use of authority,” testified Sampson.“Carefully consider our perspective before creating a precedent with unintended consequences on Canada’s reputation. It would send a strong message to business partners and to companies looking to invest that here in Canada, confidentiality protections negotiated in good faith with the federal government may not be binding.”The department of health signed vaccine contracts with seven different manufacturers: AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, Medicago, Moderna, Novavax, Pfizer, and Sanofi.The department placed an order for a total of 238 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer Canada. This order includes 30 million doses scheduled to be delivered in 2023 and 2024.The prices for vaccines from various manufacturers varied across different regions. In the European Union, the industry rates for vaccine doses were around $14.50 each, while in the United States, they were approximately $19.50 per dose.A Canadian manufacturer Providence Therapeutics of Calgary’s CEO Brad Sorenson told the Commons Finance committee in 2021 that his company had negotiated a price of $18 per dose with the Government of Manitoba.“I’m not ashamed to say that Providence is making a fairly reasonable profit at that price,” testified Sorenson. “If there was an opportunity to do something and improve on that pricing, we certainly would look at it.”A 2022 report on COVID-19 vaccines by Canada's Auditor General showed that the average cost incurred by the federal government for each vaccine dose was approximately $30.MPs stated that confidential contracts with Pfizer had been leaked in various countries, including Albania, Brazil, Colombia, Peru, the United States, and the United Kingdom.
