Last autumn, Norway paid NOK 61 million into the vaccine mechanism Covax.
This gave Norway an option for a total of 1.9 million vaccine doses from several different suppliers.
In November came the first opportunity to realize the option. Norway was then contacted by the vaccine alliance Gavi with an offer to buy vaccine doses from three manufacturers: AstraZeneca, Sanofi / GSK and Pfizer / Biontech.
But Norway refused.
Instead, the government chose to transfer the doses to poor countries.
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Paid with assistance money
It was aid newspaper Development Today who wrote about the transaction first. The case is also discussed in Current aid.
NTB has subsequently asked a number of questions to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to try to clarify whether these are vaccine doses that Norway could have used itself, as a supplement to the doses we already receive via the EU.
But the answers are ambiguous.
The EU says yes – Norway is waiting
Minister for Development Aid Dag Inge Ulstein (KrF) says that there is no question of Norway donating vaccine doses that were intended for the Norwegian population. The investment in Covax was made over the development assistance budget, he points out.
“In theory, there may be a possibility that Norway could have demanded these vaccines for its own use, instead of what was the starting point, namely to secure vulnerable health workers in poor countries,” Ulstein told NTB.
But that would not have been right, he believes, as long as Norway already receives vaccines from exactly the same producers through cooperation with the EU.
– It has not been relevant for the government, and I am happy about that.
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Transferred in February
In February this year, Gavi was able to inform the Norwegian authorities that a total of 677,000 vaccine doses had been transferred, in line with the decision made in November.
It is expected that Norway will also relinquish the remaining option of 1.2 million doses, but this has not been formally decided.
Norway’s specially appointed global health ambassador John-Arne Røttingen explains that the investment in Covax was also intended as an insurance policy. When the investment was made, the idea was that Norway could use Covax as an emergency port if there were not enough vaccines from the EU.
The EU is now considering this
But when Gavi made contact in November, the Norwegian authorities were more confident that deliveries from the EU would come.
– Then we said no as a country and transferred these options to the poorest countries, says Røttingen.
Will avoid double play
According to Røttingen, the cooperation with the EU does not imply any legal ban on deliveries from Covax.
But the government’s assessment has been that it would weaken Norway’s negotiating position to enter into two different agreements at the same time on deliveries from the same vaccine manufacturers.
– Can explain the process
It has therefore been inappropriate for the government to use alternative channels to buy vaccines from the same pharmaceutical companies from which Norway receives deliveries through cooperation with the EU.
Ulstein recalls that EU member states have voluntarily chosen to donate a proportion of their own vaccine doses to Norway.
– Then we can not at the same time take vaccines that are intended for the poorest countries in the world, he states.
– I think most people will understand that there is very little solidarity.
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