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Is Pharma Doing Enough To Enable Access To COVID-19 Vaccines Everywhere?

Vaccine Efforts Falling Short In Low- and Middle-Income Countries

 
• By Ed Silverman and Lucie Ellis-Taitt

The race to develop COVID-19 vaccines is intensifying long-standing debate over the ability of lower-income countries to gain affordable access to needed medical treatments. Patient advocates argue that drug makers and wealthy governments are striking deals that place poor countries at a disadvantage. The pharmaceutical industry, however, maintains it is moving as quickly as possible to not only discover safe and effective vaccines, but to enable equitable distribution.    

covid vaccine global supply

In January, as a growing number of countries complained they were not receiving nearly as many COVID-19 vaccine doses as expected, Pfizer Inc. chief executive officer Albert Bourla announced that the drug maker and its partner, BioNTech SE, had agreed to supply up to 40 million doses to COVAX, the World Health Organisation program designed to ensure access to dozens of low and middle-income countries.

“This is one step in our long-term commitment to supporting developing countries and strengthen the global health care infrastructure,” Bourla explained, adding that the advance purchase agreement called for supplying COVAX at a “not-for-profit” price

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