A nurse prepares the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine at a vaccination center in Sarcelles, near Paris, on January 10, 2021.
ALAIN JOCARD | AFP | Getty Images
Pfizer will supply up to 40 million doses of its coronavirus vaccine to a global alliance aimed at providing coronavirus vaccines to poor nations, the head of the World Health Organization said on Friday.
The agreement will allow Covax – co-led by WHO – to begin distributing doses of vaccines to participating countries in February, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said during a news conference. Tedros added that, pending emergency authorization, the program expects 150 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine to be available for distribution in the first quarter of this year.
The Covax program aims to provide 2 billion doses of Covid-19 vaccines to participating countries, including low- and middle-income nations, by the end of this year. The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine requires two vaccines weeks apart, indicating that the agreement would cover only 20 million people.
Tedros said the deal would also allow other countries with supplies of Pfizer vaccine to donate to the program. The WHO chief has criticized the wealthy nations that have signed supply agreements with drug manufacturers for their initial doses of Covid-19 vaccines, stockpiling supplies from poorer countries.
“This is not only significant for COVAX, it is a big step towards equitable access to vaccines and an essential part of the global effort to overcome this pandemic. We will only be safe anywhere if we are safe everywhere,” Dr. Seth Berkley , Gavi’s CEO, the Vaccine Alliance, said in a statement.
Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said during the news conference that the company will supply vaccine doses to Covax and the poorest nations at a cost. Pfizer was the first company to receive from WHO a global emergency use list for its vaccine, allowing other countries to accelerate their regulatory approval processes to begin administering the vaccine.
Bourla said the company will help deliver the doses, which require ultra-cold storage and special handling, to low-income countries. UNICEF, which is helping to distribute doses, has already warned some of the poorest countries in the world that they may face challenges in storing and administering vaccines as soon as they arrive.
The program agreement with Pfizer raises its supply agreements to just over 2 billion doses in total, although it continues negotiations for additional supply. The goal is to immunize health professionals and other frontline professionals, as well as some high-risk individuals, as of the first quarter of this year, according to Covax.
The agreement follows the United States’ decision to remain a WHO member under President Joe Biden. The new administration will also join the Covax program, a move the Trump administration resisted last year.
“I just couldn’t help the temptation to say that I am very happy that this press conference is taking place on the day that the United States will rejoin the WHO organization. I think it is a great symbolic day for us,” said Bourla, head of Pfizer. said at the briefing.