GENEVA (AP) – The head of the World Health Organization on Monday criticized the profits of pharmaceutical companies and inequalities in vaccines, saying that “it is not right” that younger, healthier adults in rich countries are vaccinated against COVID- 19 before older people or health professionals in poorer countries and charging that most vaccine manufacturers target places where “profits are highest”.
Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus started the WHO executive council meeting – virtually from its headquarters in Geneva – regretting that a poor country received only 25 doses of vaccine, while more than 39 million doses were administered in almost 50 more nations. rich.
“Only 25 doses were given in a lower-income country – not 25 million, not 25,000 – only 25. I need to be frank: the world is on the verge of catastrophic moral failure,” said Tedros. He did not specify the country, but a WHO spokeswoman identified him as Guinea.
“It is true that all governments want to prioritize the vaccination of their own health professionals and the elderly first,” he said. “But it is not certain that younger, healthier adults in rich countries will be vaccinated before health professionals and the elderly in poorer countries. There will be enough vaccine for everyone ”.
Tedros, an Ethiopian who uses his first name, however, hailed the scientific achievement behind the launch of coronavirus vaccines less than a year after the outbreak of the pandemic in China, where a WHO-supported team was sent to investigate the origins. of the coronavirus.
“Vaccines are the injection in the arm that we all need, literally and figuratively,” said Tedros. “But now we face the real danger that, even when vaccines bring hope to some, they become yet another brick in the wall of inequality between the worlds of those who have and those who don’t.”
He noted that the WHO-supported COVAX program, which aims to distribute vaccines to all countries, rich or poor, based on need, has so far guaranteed 2 billion doses of vaccine from five producers and options in one billion more doses.
“We plan to start deliveries in February,” he said. “COVAX is ready to deliver what it was created for.”
That target date can be a difficult task, because a major vaccine producer for the developing world – the Serum Institute of India – has not confirmed a date and predicted that its launch may not happen before March or April.
In his opening remarks, Tedros conveyed some of his harshest public words to vaccine manufacturers, criticizing the “bilateral agreements” between them and countries that WHO says could decrease the effectiveness of the COVAX facility – and went further by raising the bar. profit issue.
“The situation is made worse by the fact that most manufacturers have prioritized regulatory approval in rich countries, where profits are higher, rather than sending full dossiers to WHO,” he said.
This seemed to allude to the lack of data that the UN health agency said it had received from vaccine manufacturers so that WHO could approve its vaccines for use in broader emergencies.
Dr Clement Martin Auer, a member of the Austrian council, asked tough questions and words to GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance, which also with the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations is leading efforts at COVAX.
Despite calling his principles of equal access to vaccines a “fantastic idea”, Auer blamed COVAX for being “slow” and unable to close “crucial numbers” of contracts. He defended the European Union, which counts among its 27 members many of the richest countries in the world, for obtaining vaccines for its 450 million citizens and for being “the largest individual donor” in supporting COVAX.
“We were, in the European Union, skeptical that GAVI-COVAX had the means and capabilities to fulfill its tasks and negotiate the necessary contracts and to guarantee the needs of our citizens,” said Auer, adding that COVAX’s administration had ” rejected ”proposals negotiated by GAVI and the EU.
He said that GAVI-COVAX at the beginning of last year did not include mRNA vaccines such as those developed by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna in the COVAX portfolio.
“This was a big mistake, considering that mRNAs are the first on the market and the gold standards when it comes to COVID vaccines,” said Auer.
WHO has approved Pfzier-BioNTech for emergency use against coronavirus and may approve Moderna this week.
WHO officials or other council members did not immediately address Tedros’ concerns at the meeting.
In news about related vaccines, Israel struck a deal with Pfizer, promising to share a vast collection of medical data with the international drug giant in exchange for the continuous flow of its difficult-to-obtain vaccine.
Supporters say the deal could allow Israel to become the first country to vaccinate most of its population, while providing valuable research that can help the rest of the world. But critics say the deal raises major ethical concerns, including possible breaches of privacy and a deepening of the global divide in access to coronavirus vaccines.
Due to the ultra-cold storage required for the Pfizer vaccine, it is more expensive and difficult to use than some rivals, including the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, but studies show that it is very effective. Israeli media reported that Israel paid at least 50% more than other countries for the Pfizer vaccine.
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Ashok Sharma in Delhi and Ilan Ben Zion in Jerusalem contributed to this report.
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