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Vaccine photo: VCG
Some high-income countries have purchased around 70% of the coronavirus vaccines that would be available in 2021, which, combined with other issues such as production capacity, would greatly threaten equal and timely global vaccine provisions, said a recent report on The Lancet.
The report, released online Friday, says governments in high-income countries, representing 16% of the world’s population, have placed pre-orders covering at least 4.2 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines, or at least 70% doses. available in 2021 from five applicants.
While COVAX tries to ensure that no country should immunize more than 20% of its population until all countries have vaccinated 20% of their population, in line with the principles of global equality, many income countries high bypassed COVAX and instead sought priority. access to copious amounts of COVID-19 vaccines that are sufficient to vaccinate their populations multiple times.
According to the vaccine contracts tracked by Duke University, as of February 8, the EU has ordered enough doses to vaccinate its population more than twice, and Canada has about five times more than it needs if each no one needs two doses. The United States has purchased 2.6 billion doses, nearly a quarter of the world’s supply to date – to cover 396% of its population.
Tao Lina, a Shanghai-based vaccine expert, previously told the Global Times that it was natural for rich countries to bypass COVAX and buy vaccines in advance directly from manufacturers.
“But there is no need to launch vaccines. It will take a country weeks or even months to administer millions of doses. If the rich countries are prepared to share extra doses that they would not use in a month with the developing countries, the situation will be much better for the latter, ”Tao suggested.
However, one problem is that COVAX is supported by international organizations like the WHO, but these international organizations do not have executive power over any country, so it is difficult to get rich countries to follow COVAX guidelines. , Tao said.
For COVAX to be successful, The Lancet report said it needed substantial funding to buy vaccines. In February 2021, governments and other partners committed about $ 4 billion in funding for COVAX, but Gavi and the WHO estimate that an additional $ 6.8 billion will be needed for COVAX to procure and distribute at least 2 billion doses by the end of 2021.
Zhuang Shilihe, a vaccine expert based in Guangzhou, told the Global Times that vaccine distribution is more dependent on countries’ ability to procure them. Vaccines naturally go to rich countries who could afford the bill as poor countries scramble to get vaccinated by COVAX.
COVAX is an ideal system that will balance global vaccine distribution, but multiple factors such as lack of funding from poor countries to purchase vaccines means the program cannot run in a timely manner, Zhuang said.
The fundamental issue is the shortage of vaccine supply, the expert said, adding that the imbalanced vaccine distribution may not be corrected in 2021.
A successful solution to the production bottleneck would likely require widespread technology transfer to allow expansion of manufacturing capacity, according to the Friday Lancet report.
Currently, few countries have the national capacity to rapidly produce COVID-19 vaccines on their own and instead will need companies to actively share their knowledge, technology and data with domestic manufacturers, the report noted.
Some large vaccine developers have entered into such collaboration with manufacturers in middle- and low-income countries.
Chinese producer Sinovac previously told the Global Times that it now exports semi-finished vaccines to countries capable of filling and packaging doses. This not only alleviates the pressure on Chinese production facilities, but also lowers international transportation costs and dramatically improves accessibility of vaccines.
Zhang warned that the worst outcome of the situation is that some countries may proceed with mandatory approval to meet demand for vaccines like generic drugs in India. “This can happen if some countries have difficulty getting vaccinated.”
Chinese experts have said that China is open to sharing and transferring technology, but the problem is that not all countries are able to establish a production line.
The Global Times has learned from Chinese vaccine producers that the inactivated vaccine production chain has two parts: a virus culture workshop and a solid preparation workshop.
Throughout the procedure, hundreds of items must be tested to ensure the vaccine is safe and effective.
Each stage of vaccine production should be carried out in workshops that have obtained certificates of good manufacturing practice. Countries without such workshops would not be able to guarantee the quality of the vaccines they produce, Feng Duojia, president of the China Vaccine Industry Association, told the Global Times.
The high cost of building the coronavirus vaccine production lines would also prevent some countries from producing vaccines on their own, but would rather wait for COVAX to be awarded or buy vaccines from other countries, experts said.
The transfer of technology to manufacture vaccines could be a solution to balance the global distribution of vaccines, and it might be better to transfer the technology to countries capable of launching large-scale production to compensate for vaccine shortages, a said a Beijing-based immunologist who requested anonymity. Global Times Sunday.
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