In what could be described as one of South Africa's landmark COVID-19 pandemic court cases, the Health Justice Initiative versus the Department of Health court victory has finally revealed details of agreements between the South African government's COVID-19 vaccine procurement contracts with private vaccine manufacturers and suppliers. In reviewing and analyzing the contracts, the Health Justice Initiative found immoral conditions that weighted in the favour of pharmaceuticals, including an agreement that only 20 million U.S. Dollars of the 40 million U.S. Dollars advance payment to Pfizer was refundable should the company fail to deliver doses and Johnson & Johnson's 27.5 million U.S. Dollar advance payment was not refundable "in any circumstances". This has further brought into question the role of pharmaceutical companies at the time when global countries were trying to contain the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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