By Emma Farge and Matthias Blamont
GENEVA (Reuters) – The World Health Organization said on Friday it had reached an agreement with Pfizer / BioNTech for 40 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine and should be able to start distributing vaccines to poor and poor countries. lower-middle income next month. your COVAX program.
The COVAX scheme, led by WHO and the GAVI vaccine alliance, has signed agreements for hundreds of millions of doses to vaccinate people in poor and low-income countries, but vaccinations have not yet started. The Pfizer vaccine is so far the only one that has WHO emergency approval.
“In this world, we are as protected as our neighbor,” said Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla, officially announcing the deal released by Reuters on Thursday.
Bourla said 40 million doses, a fraction of the company’s 2021 total production estimate of 2 billion, would be sold nonprofit. He described it as an initial agreement and said that more doses could be provided through the COVAX program in the future.
The deal comes amid growing criticism of vaccine inequality, both from WHO and others, while rich countries inoculate millions of people using vaccines purchased through bilateral agreements.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the new agreement with Pfizer should allow vaccinations to start in February for healthcare professionals, although details of supply arrangements are still being finalized.
He said he hoped the deal would also encourage other countries to donate more of their Pfizer doses to support rapid implementation, as Norway did.
“The commitment (of the United States) to join COVAX, coupled with this new agreement with Pfizer / BioNTech, means that we are closer to fulfilling COVAX’s promise,” he said.
President Joe Biden’s chief medical advisor, Anthony Fauci, said on Thursday that the United States intended to join the facility. Biden’s predecessor, Donald Trump, suspended funding to the Geneva-based body and announced a withdrawal process.
WHO said earlier this week that it planned to deliver 135 million vaccines in the first quarter of 2021, without dividing by supplier.
GAVI CEO Seth Berkley said in the same statement that countries would receive dose estimates for the beginning of this year in about a week.
(Reporting by Matthias Blamont, Emma Farge and Peter Graff; Writing by Peter Graff; Editing by Louise Heavens and Sonya Hepinstall)