PARIS (AP) – In an industrial district on the outskirts of Bangladesh’s largest city, there is a factory with shiny new equipment imported from Germany, its impeccable halls lined with hermetically sealed rooms. It works at only a quarter of its capacity.
It is one of three factories that The Associated Press has found on three continents whose owners say they could start producing hundreds of millions of COVID-19 vaccines in a short period of time, if only they had the plans and technical knowledge. But this knowledge belongs to the big pharmaceutical companies that produced the first three vaccines authorized by countries, including the United Kingdom, the European Union and the USA – Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca. All factories are still waiting for answers.
Across Africa and Southeast Asia, governments and aid groups, as well as the World Health Organization, are calling on pharmaceutical companies to share their patent information more broadly to address a growing global shortage. a pandemic that has already lost 2.5 million lives. Pharmaceutical companies that have taken taxpayer money from the U.S. or Europe to develop vaccinations at an unprecedented rate say they are negotiating exclusive licensing agreements and agreements with manufacturers on a case-by-case basis because they need to protect their intellectual property and ensure safety.
Critics say this fragmented approach is too slow at a time of urgent need to stop the virus before it moves into even more lethal forms. WHO has called on vaccine manufacturers to share their know-how to “dramatically increase global supply”.
“If this can be done, every night every continent will have dozens of companies that could produce these vaccines,” said Abdul Muktadir, whose Bangladesh-based Incepta plant already produces hepatitis, flu, meningitis, rabies and tetanus vaccines. and measles.
Worldwide, the supply of coronavirus vaccines is much lower than the demand, and the limited amount available is destined for rich countries. Almost 80% of vaccines so far have been given in just 10 countries, according to the WHO. More than 210 countries and territories with 2.5 billion people had not received a single blow since last week.
Approaching one agreement to another also means that some poorer countries end up paying more for the same vaccine than richer countries. South Africa, Mexico, Brazil and Uganda all pay different amounts per dose for the AstraZeneca vaccine – and more than European Union governments, according to studies and documents available to the public. AstraZeneca said the price of the vaccine will differ depending on local production costs and how many countries order.
“What we see today is a footprint, a survival of the fittest approach, in which those with the deepest pockets, with the sharpest elbows, grab what is there and let others die,” said Winnie Byanyima , UNAIDS Executive Director.
In South Africa, which hosts the most worrying version of COVID-19 in the world, the Biovac factory has been saying for weeks that it is in negotiations with an anonymous manufacturer, without any contract to show it. And in Denmark, the Nordic Bavarian plant has the spare capacity and capacity to make more than 200 million doses, but it is also waiting for the word of the manufacturer of an authorized coronavirus vaccine.
Governments and health experts offer two potential solutions to the lack of vaccines: one, supported by the WHO, is a patent fund modeled after a platform created for HIV, tuberculosis and hepatitis treatments for the voluntary exchange of technology, intellectual property and data. But no company has offered to share its data.
The other, a proposal to suspend intellectual property rights during the pandemic, has been blocked in the World Trade Organization by the United States and Europe, home to companies responsible for creating coronavirus vaccines. This action has the support of at least 119 countries and the African Union, but strongly opposes vaccine manufacturers.
Pharmaceutical companies say that instead of lifting IP restrictions, rich countries should simply provide more vaccines to poorer countries through COVAX, the WHO public-private initiative has helped create a more equitable distribution of vaccines. The organization and its partners administered the first doses last week in very limited quantities.
But rich countries are not willing to give up what they have. Ursula Von der Leyen, head of the European Commission, used the term “global common good” to describe vaccines, but the European Union has imposed controls on vaccine exports, giving countries the power to stop firing.
What we see today is a footprint, a survival of the fittest approach, where those with the deepest pockets, with the sharpest elbows, grab what is there and let others die.
–Winnie Byanyima, UNAIDS Executive Director
On her first day as Director-General of the WTO, Nigeria, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said it was time to turn our attention to the vaccination needs of the world’s poor.
“We need to focus on working with companies to open and license more viable production sites now in emerging markets and developing countries,” she told members of the organization. “This should happen soon so we can save lives.”
The long-standing model in the pharmaceutical industry is that companies invest huge sums of money and research in exchange for the right to reap profits from their drugs and vaccines. Last May, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla described the idea of widely sharing intellectual property rights as “stupid” and even “dangerous.”
Thomas Cueni, director general of the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers, called the idea of lifting patent protection “a very bad signal for the future. You point out that if you have a pandemic, your patents are worthless. “
Proponents of sharing vaccine plans argue that, unlike most drugs, taxpayers have paid billions to develop vaccines that could help end the world’s largest public health emergency.
“People are literally dying because we can’t agree on intellectual property rights,” said Mustaqeem De Gama, a South African diplomat involved in WTO talks.
Paul Fehlner, chief legal officer of biotechnology company Axcella and supporter of the WHO patent board, said governments that have invested billions of dollars in vaccine development and treatments should have demanded more from the companies they hire. they financed from the beginning.
“One condition of taking taxpayers’ money is not to treat them like nonsense,” he said.
Last month, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the leading pandemic expert in the United States, said all options must be on the table, including improving production capacity in the developing world and working with pharmaceuticals to relax their patents.
“Rich countries, including ourselves, have a moral responsibility when you have a global outbreak like this,” Fauci said. “We need to vaccinate the whole world, not just our own country.”
It is difficult to know exactly how much vaccine could be made worldwide if intellectual property restrictions were lifted. But Suhaib Siddiqi, former director of chemistry at Moderna, said with the scheme and technical advice that a modern factory should be able to make vaccine production in no more than three to four months.
“In my opinion, the vaccine belongs to the public,” Siddiqi said. “Any company that has experience in synthesizing molecules should be able to do it.”
Back in Bangladesh, the Incepta factory tried to get what it needed to make more vaccines in two ways, offering its Moderna production lines and contacting a WHO partner. Moderna did not respond to requests for comment on the Bangladeshi factory, but its CEO, Stéphane Bancel, told MEPs that the company’s engineers are fully engaged in expanding production in Europe.
“By making more technology transfers right now, it could actually put production and production up in the coming months,” he said. “We are very open to doing so in the future, once our current sites run.”
Muktadir said he fully appreciates the extraordinary scientific achievements involved in creating the vaccines this year, wants the rest of the world to be able to participate in it, and is willing to pay a fair price.
“No one should give up their property for nothing,” he said. “A vaccine could be accessible to people – effective and high quality vaccines.”
Maria Cheng reported from Toronto. Jamey Keaten in Geneva, Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen, Denmark, Al-Emrun Garjon in Dhaka, Bangladesh and Andrew Meldrum in Johannesburg, South Africa, contributed to this report.
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