Vaccine sharing scheme announces further support for low income countries

The Covid-19 vaccine sharing scheme Covax has announced that is has secured access to nearly 2 billion doses of Covid-19 vaccines.

The Covax Facility was set up between the World Health Organisation (WHO), the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and Gavi, in an effort to “ensure fair allocation of vaccine supply”. The collaboration hopes to be able fund 2 billion doses of Covid-19 vaccines by 2021.

The vaccine doses will be made available on behalf of the 190 countries that are participating in the scheme. The doses will be rolled out in waves as further supply becomes available. The countries participating in the scheme will have access to doses in the first half of 2021, with deliveries expected to start in the first quarter of 2021.

Further deliveries will follow in the second half of the year, with Covax targeting supply of doses equalling up to 20% of countries’ populations by the end of the year. Additional doses to reach higher coverage levels will then be available in 2022.

Covax has stated it aims to deliver at least 1.3 billion doses of the approved Covid-19 vaccines to 92 low-and middle-income countries in 2021. Covax has recently announced deals with AstraZeneca for 170 million doses of the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine candidate, alongside a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Johnson & Johnson for 500 million doses of the Janssen candidate, which is currently being investigated as a single dose vaccine.

These deals are in addition to existing agreements by Covax with the Serum Institute of India (SII) for 200 million doses, with options for up to 900 million doses more – of either the AstraZeneca/Oxford or Novavax candidates, as well as a statement of intent for 200 million doses of the Sanofi/GSK vaccine candidate. 

“This commitment is evidence that the world learned an important lesson from the 2009 H1N1 pandemic. Our research and development efforts have begun to pay off. We now have safe and effective vaccines that can protect against Covid-19 and a clear pathway to securing 2 billion doses for the populations at greatest risk all around the world,” said Dr Richard Hatchett, CEO of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI).  “Securing the right of first refusal of successful vaccine production as part of R&D arrangements has helped guarantee equitable access to vaccines, a founding principle of CEPI.   The challenge of delivering the vaccines that have demonstrated success, of completing the development of other promising vaccine candidates to further increase supply, and of ending the acute phase of the pandemic, lies ahead of us.” 

“The arrival of vaccines is giving all of us a glimpse of the light at the end of the tunnel,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organisation (WHO). “But we will only truly end the pandemic if we end it everywhere at the same time, which means it’s essential to vaccinate some people in all countries, rather than all people in some countries. And we must remember that vaccines will complement, but not replace, the many other tools we have in our toolbox to stop transmission and save lives. We must continue to use all of them."

The news was welcomed by charity Oxfam.

“Today’s announcement shows promise in the global community’s commitment to getting rapid and equitable access to Covid-19 vaccines for all countries, no matter the income level. But the COVAX plan alone cannot guarantee full access to the vaccine for the world’s most at risk communities. It will depend on whether the corporations agree to the right price and donors give them enough money to pay for it. Lack of transparency continues to leave too much room for doubt.”

“Rich country charity and vaccine donations are not sustainable solutions to the vaccine problem. Donations of effective and appropriate excess vaccines are welcome if pooled for fair and equitable allocation according to the World Health Organisation’s framework.

“Sharing the crumbs from the table does not fix the real barriers to addressing the vaccine inequality crisis. We need a People’s Vaccine, not a profit vaccine,” Oxfam’s Niko Lusiani said.