NEW DELHI — The company behind a COVID-19 vaccine touted as a key tool for the developing world has sent tens of millions of doses to wealthy nations but provided none yet to the U.N.-backed effort to supply poorer countries, a sign that inequity persists in the global response to the pandemic.
A quarter-million doses from the company were supposed to be available to the vaccine-sharing initiative, called COVAX, by March. But the U.N. agency in charge of deliveries says the first shipments now likely won’t be made until April or May.
It wasn’t supposed to be this way. The company, Novavax, got $388 million from one of the organizations leading COVAX to fast-track the vaccine’s development and help make the shot available in poorer countries.
The investment guaranteed COVAX the “right of first refusal” to the first Novavax doses, but the deal applied only to factories in the Czech Republic, South Korea and Spain, said Bjorg Dystvold Nilsson, spokesman for COVAX co-founder CEPI.
There are other factories that aren’t part of the deal — and their shots are going elsewhere.
In a statement, the Gaithersburg, Maryland, company acknowledged that it had yet to share any shots with Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, which fronts the COVAX effort, but said it stands ready to do so.
“We continue to work with Gavi to reach our shared goal of ensuring global access to our protein-based vaccine where it is needed most,” Novavax said.
Gavi suggested part of the delay is that the Novavax vaccine wasn’t authorized by WHO until December. Gavi said it planned to allocate Novavax in the future and was “in close touch with the manufacturer and expects the supply to be available for delivery when countries need it.”
Less urgency
Health officials also worry that the urgency to vaccinate people everywhere against COVID-19 has disappeared — especially as many countries roll back precautions and the world’s attention is diverted.
“Rich countries have moved on from COVID, and everyone is fixated on the war in Ukraine, but COVID-19 remains an acute crisis for most people in the world,” said Ritu Sharma, a vice president at the charity CARE.
She said COVAX was still desperately short of vaccines and that based on the current pace of vaccination, the world was still “years and years” away from immunizing enough people to stop future COVID-19 waves.
Other experts said it was incumbent on public health agencies to ensure their investments in vaccines would benefit poor countries and to be more transparent about what went wrong.
“Whatever the explanation is, it’s unsatisfactory,” said Brook Baker, an access-to-medicines specialist at Northeastern University. “The bottom line is that there are still a lot of unvaccinated people in poor countries, and once again, they are at the back of the line.”
Source: Voice of America