Regarding the vaccination project for the new coronavirus, which amounted to more than 4 trillion yen, the Board of Audit pointed out that "it is not necessarily recognized as appropriate" because the basis for calculating the amount of vaccine that the government has decided to secure cannot be sufficiently confirmed.
For vaccines for the new coronavirus, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare has concluded contracts with multiple vaccine manufacturers and distributors, and approximately 2.3 trillion yen has been spent over the two years of FY2 and FY4 of Reiwa, including the cost of implementing vaccinations.
The number of vaccine contracts reached up to 8 million doses, but as a result of an investigation by the Board of Audit of Japan, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare at the time did not sufficiently describe the basis for calculating the amount of vaccine that was decided to be secured.
For this reason, the Inspection Authority pointed out that "it is not necessarily appropriate" and requested that in the future, even in an emergency, the validity of the judgment can be verified after the fact.
In addition, it was found that the basis for the calculation of the refund amount for 8200.6225 million doses of AstraZeneca was not confirmed among the vaccines canceled before delivery.
Including those from other manufacturers, more than 2 million vaccines were canceled, and the laboratories asked them to confirm the validity of the amount in future refund negotiations with each company.
The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) stated, "We have secured a reliable amount of vaccines after considering risks such as development failure, but the basis for the calculation was difficult to understand from materials alone. We are currently discussing the cancellation with the company, so we will respond while confirming the appropriateness."