Japan Destroys 77.8-M COVID Vaccine Doses Worth $1.6-B

At least 77.83 million unused coronavirus vaccine doses had apparently been discarded in Japan by February this year, mostly because they were expiring, Makoto Kakizaki and Rikka Teramachi reported for Mainichi Shimbun.

Photo Insert: Mainichi estimated that the scrapped doses were worth around 212 billion yen, or roughly $1.6 billion.

The dumped doses account for roughly 9% of Japan's total contracted COVID-19 vaccine purchases, and mass disposals are expected to continue as the expiration dates for current stocks keep arriving.

Mainichi Shimbun determined the volume by examining publicly available health ministry data and tallying the results of its own questionnaire to major local governments across the country.

Experts are calling for investigations into the processes leading up to the wastage.

As the Japanese government has not revealed the per-shot purchase price of COVID-19 vaccines, it is impossible to accurately calculate the value of the discarded doses.

However, the Finance Ministry has indicated that each shot costs an equivalent of 2,725 yen (about $20.70), arrived at by dividing the vaccine purchase budget of just over 2.4 trillion yen (approximately $18.23 billion) by the 882 million doses the government has contracted for.

Using this unit price, the Mainichi estimated that the scrapped doses were worth around 212 billion yen, or roughly $1.6 billion.

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