PARIS – In an industrial area on the outskirts of the largest city in Bangladesh there is a factory with shiny new equipment imported from Germany, the waterproof halls lined with sealed rooms. It operates at just a quarter of its capacity.
It is one of three factories found by The Associated Press on three continents and their owners say they could start making hundreds of millions of COVID-19 vaccines at short notice if they only had the blueprints and their technical knowledge. But that knowledge applies to the major pharmaceutical companies that make the first three vaccines authorized by countries including Britain, the European Union and the US – Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca. The factories are still waiting for answers.
Across Africa and Southeast Asia, governments and aid agencies, as well as the WHO, are urging pharmaceutical companies to share their patent information more widely to meet the global shortage of pandemics. has already received nearly 2.5 million lives. Pharmaceutical companies that have given taxpayers money from the U.S. or Europe to develop inoculations at an unprecedented pace say they are negotiating exclusive contracts and licensing contracts with producers on a case-by-case basis. as they must protect their intellectual property and ensure their safety.
Critics say this piecemeal approach is just too slow in times of crisis to stop the virus before it turns into even more deadly forms. Last month, the WHO called on vaccine manufacturers to share their expertise to “significantly increase global supply. ”
“If that can be done immediately overnight, every continent will have dozens of companies that would be able to produce these vaccines,” said Abdul Muktadir, who already owns the Incepta plant in Bangladesh. vaccines against hepatitis, influenza, meningitis, rabies, tetanus and measles.
Worldwide, supply of coronavirus vaccines is falling far below demand, and the limited availability is going to rich countries. Nearly 80% of vaccines to date have been given in just 10 countries, according to WHO. More than 210 countries with a global population of 2.5 billion did not get a single view.
The treatment-to-treatment approach also means that some poor countries pay more for the same vaccine than richer countries. South Africa, Mexico, Brazil and Uganda all pay different amounts per dose for the same AstraZeneca vaccine – more than EU governments, according to studies and publicly available documents. AstraZeneca said in an email that the price of the vaccine will vary depending on factors such as production costs, where the pictures are made and how much countries order.
“What we are seeing today is stampede, a survival of the most adaptable approach, where those with the deepest pockets, with the strongest angles cling to what is there and leave some another dies, ”said Winnie Byanyima, UNAIDS executive director.
In South Africa, where the COVID-19 variant is most concerned in the world, the Biovac factory has said for weeks that it is in talks with an unnamed manufacturer without a contract to focus on its shon. And in Denmark, the Bavarian Nordic factory has the capacity to spray and the capacity to make more than 200 million doses but is also awaiting notification from a licensed coronavirus vaccine manufacturer.
Governments and health experts offer two possible solutions to vaccine shortages: One, with WHO support, is a patented pool modeled after a platform set up for HIV treatments, consumption and hepatitis for voluntary sharing of technology, intellectual property and data. But no company has offered to share their data or move the necessary technology.
The other, a proposal to suspend intellectual property rights during the pandemic, is blocked in the World Trade Organization by the United States and Europe, the home of the companies responsible for the formation of the vaccines described as the best way to stop the spread of coronavirus. That campaign is supported by at least 119 countries among the 164 WTO member states, and the African Union, but vaccine manufacturers are strongly opposed to that.
Pharmaceutical companies say that instead of lifting IP restrictions, rich countries should give poor countries just more of the vaccines they have through COVAX, the public-private initiative that WHO helped circulating a balanced vaccine. The group and its partners delivered their first doses last week – in very small amounts.
But rich countries are not willing to give up what they have. Earlier this month, European Commission leader Ursula Von der Leyen used the phrase “universal global good” to describe vaccines. However, by the end of the week, the European Union had lifted export controls on vaccines, empowering countries to stop sightings from leaving their borders in some cases.
The long-standing model in the pharmaceutical industry is for companies to pour in large sums of money and investigate the right to profits from the drugs and vaccines. aca. At a business forum last May, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla described the idea of widely sharing IP rights as “zero” and even “dangerous.” AstraZeneca’s CEO Pascal Soriot said that if intellectual property is not protected, “there is no incentive for anyone to innovate.”
Thomas Cueni, chief executive of the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers, described the idea of building patent protections as “a very bad omen for the future. You’re signaling if you have a pandemic, your patents are worthless. ”
Proponents of sharing vaccine blueprints argue that, unlike most drugs, taxpayers have paid billions to develop vaccines that are now “global public goods” and should be used to end the biggest public health crisis in living memory.
“People are literally dying because we can’t agree on intellectual property rights,” said Mustaqeem De Gama, a South African diplomat who has been heavily involved in WTO negotiations.
Paul Fehlner, chief legal officer for the biotech company Axcella and supporter of the WHO patent pool board, said governments should pour billions of dollars into developing more vaccines and treatments to demand more from the companies which they funded from the beginning.
“It’s not a condition of taking taxpayers’ money to treat them like dupes,” he said.
In a Feb. 3 interview with the Journal of the American Medical Association, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the leading pandemic expert in the United States, said all options must be on the table, including aid relief, developing productivity potential in the developing world and working with pharmaceutical companies to fix their patents.
“Wealthy nations have a moral responsibility, ourselves included, in the face of such a global revolution,” Fauci said. “We need to get the world vaccinated, not just our own. “
It is difficult to determine what level of vaccination could be made worldwide if intellectual property restrictions were lifted, as the production capacity of factories has not been publicly shared. But Suhaib Siddiqi, Moderna ‘s director of chemistry, said with the blue plan and technical advice, a modern factory should be able to get a vaccine product going in at most three or so. four months.
“In my opinion, the vaccine belongs to the public,” said Siddiqi, who is still active in the field. “Any company that has knowledge of molecules should make it possible.”
Back in Bangladesh, the Incepta factory tried what it needed to make more vaccines in two ways, by offering its production lines to Moderna and by reaching out to a partner. WHO. Moderna did not respond to many requests for comment on the Bangladesh plant, but their CEO, Stéphane Bancel, told European parliamentarians that the company’s engineers are fully owned to expand production in Europe.
“Making more technical moves now could potentially increase production and output for months at a high risk,” he said. “We are very open about the future when our current sites are up and running. ”
Muktadir said he was also in talks in May last year with CEPI, or the Coalition for Epidemic Preparation Innovation, one of the WHO partners in a global effort to purchase and distribute COVID-19 vaccines fairly, but nothing came of it. CEPI spokesman Tom Mooney said last year’s talks with Incepta did not raise interest, but that CEPI is still in talks “about matching opportunities including the ability to use Incepta’s ability to use second-wave vaccines. . ”
Muktadir said he greatly appreciates the remarkable scientific achievement involved in the creation of vaccines this year, that he wants the rest of the world to be able to share in it, and that he is willing pay a fair price.
“No one should hand over their property without doing anything,” he said. “Vaccines can be made available to people – high quality, effective vaccines. ”
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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.