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Businesses and rich countries continue to block attempts to share vaccine technology and proceeds
Developing countries have been hit by an endless tide of inadequate gestures and broken promises from rich countries and pharmaceutical companies, which fail to deliver the billions of doses promised while blocking real solutions to inequalities vaccine, according to a new report released today by the People’s Vaccine Alliance. The report, “A dose of reality”, found that of the 1.8 billion donations of COVID vaccines pledged by rich countries, only 261 million doses (14%) have been delivered to date, while Western pharmaceutical companies have delivered only 12% of the doses they allocated to COVAX, the initiative designed to help low- and middle-income countries have equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines.
At the same time, the EU and other wealthy countries have refused to support the proposal by more than 100 countries to waive patents on vaccines and COVID-19-related technologies, while major pharmaceutical companies have failed. not openly shared their technology with the World Health Organization to enable developing countries to manufacture their own vaccines and save lives.
Winnie Byanyima, Executive Director of UNAIDS, said: “Rich countries and corporations shamefully fail to deliver on their promises while blocking the real solution; ensure that developing countries have the capacity to manufacture their own vaccines.
“It is painfully clear that the developing world cannot count on the largesse and charity of rich countries and pharmaceutical companies, and hundreds of thousands of people are dying from COVID-19 as a result. It is more than appalling. ”
The UK government, which has actively blocked calls from countries like South Africa and India to be allowed to manufacture their own vaccines, delivered just 9.6 million (less than 10 percent) of the 100 million doses he had promised the poorest countries. Meanwhile, he has taken half a million doses of COVAX himself, despite extreme vaccine shortages in developing countries and having already obtained more than enough doses for the British thanks to direct deals with the British. pharmaceutical companies. Canada has taken more than 970,000 doses of COVAX, while delivering only 3.2 million (or 8 percent) of the 40 million doses promised. Germany, another country blocking the waiver, delivered 12% of the 100 million doses promised and France delivered only 9% of the 120 million promised. The United States delivered the most doses (nearly 177 million doses), but that only represents 16% of the 1.1 billion promised.
The Alliance said that while COVAX did not recognize that relying on pharmaceutical companies may not deliver doses, the companies undermined the initiative, initially by not allocating it enough doses and secondly by delivering much less than they had agreed. Of the 994 million doses allocated to COVAX by Johnson & Johnson, Moderna, Oxford / AstraZeneca and Pfizer / BioNTech, only 120 million 12% – have actually been delivered, or fifteen times less than the 1.8 billion doses delivered to countries wealthy of these companies. Johnson & Johnson and Moderna have yet to deliver the single dose promised to the initiative.
Robbie Silverman of Oxfam said: “The failure of donations from rich countries and the failure of COVAX have the same root cause: We have ceded control of the vaccine supply to a small number of pharmaceutical companies, who donate priority to their own profits.
“These companies cannot produce enough to immunize the world, they artificially limit supply and they will always put their wealthy customers on the front line.
“The only way to end the pandemic is to share technology and know-how with other qualified manufacturers so that everyone, everywhere, can have access to these vital vaccines.”
At the United Nations General Assembly in September, President Biden rallied support for the goal of vaccinating 70% of the people in each country by September 2022. While that goal is rightly ambitious, the People’s Vaccine Alliance says it should be reached much faster, and there is still no plan to achieve it.
WHO has said it must be a global priority to deliver doses to developing countries by the end of this year, but the Alliance says rich countries are not listening and working on a schedule delivery of an insufficient supply of doses by 2022, which is likely to lead to countless unnecessary deaths.
Maaza Seyoum, African Alliance and People’s Vaccine Alliance Africa, said: “All over the world, health workers are dying and children are losing their parents and grandparents. With ninety-nine percent of people in low-income countries still unvaccinated, we’re fed up with too little too late.
“Governments must stop allowing drug companies to play godly while making astronomical profits and start taking concrete action that will save lives. ”
To deflect growing pressure to share their vaccine technology without intellectual property restrictions, major Western pharmaceutical companies have consistently over-exaggerated their projected production volumes, claiming that there will soon be enough for everyone while delivering the overwhelming majority. of their stock to rich countries. Collectively, the four companies have claimed they will manufacture around 7.5 billion vaccines in 2021, but with less than three months to go until the end of the year, they have delivered only half. Forecasts suggest companies will produce 6.2 billion vaccines by the end of the year, a shortfall from their projections of more than 1.3 billion doses.
One week before the leaders’ meeting for the G20 summit in Rome, the People’s Vaccine Alliance ― which has 77 members including ActionAid, the African Alliance, Global Justice Now, Oxfam and UNAIDS― calls on them to stop breaking their promises of immunize the world and:
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Suspend intellectual property rights for COVID vaccines, tests, treatments and other medical tools by accepting the proposed waiver of the World Trade Organization’s TRIPS Agreement.
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Demand and use all their legal and policy tools to compel pharmaceutical companies to share COVID-19 data, know-how and technology with WHO’s COVID-19 technology access pool and clearinghouse of South African mRNA technology.
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Invest in decentralized manufacturing centers in developing countries to move from a world of monopolies and vaccine shortages to a world of vaccine sufficiency and equity in which developing countries have direct control over the capacity to production to meet their needs.
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Immediately redistribute existing vaccines equitably across all countries to meet WHO’s goal of immunizing 40 percent of people in all countries by the end of 2021 and 70 percent of people in all countries ‘by mid-2022.
Notes to Editors
All statistics are references available in the full report: “A Dose of Reality: How Rich Countries and Pharmaceutical Companies Are Breaking Their Vaccine Promises.”
The main statistics that rich countries have delivered only 14% of the promised doses refer to the doses given by the G7 and “Team Europe”, which includes the EU, Norway and Iceland.
So far, COVAX has received directly from pharmaceutical companies:
- 104 million (14%) of the 720 million doses promised by Oxford / AstraZeneca
- 16 million (40%) of the 40 million promised by Pfizer / BioNTech
- Zero dose of the 200 million promised by Johnson & Johnson
- Zero dose of the 30 million promised by Moderna
Only 1.3 percent of people in low-income countries are fully immunized.
Airfinity predicts that Johnson & Johnson, Moderna, Oxford / AstraZeneca and Pfizer / BioNTech will produce 6.2 billion doses by the end of the year, 17% lower than initial forecasts, which translates into more than 1.3 billion doses of vaccine missing.
Contact information
Sarah Dransfield in United Kingdom | sdransfield@oxfam.org.uk | + 44 (0) 7884 114825
Annie Thériault in Peru | annie.theriault@oxfam.org | +51 936 307 990
Popular Alliance for Vaccines | media@peoplesvaccine.org
For updates, please follow @Oxfam and @PeopleVaccine
Please support Oxfam’s call for the coronavirus response.
