Pfizer executive affirms that the challenge for 2022 is the equitable distribution of vaccines

The main challenge for 2022 is to successfully contain the greatest health emergency of the last century, for which an equitable distribution of vaccines is essential, this was considered by Carlos Murillo, president of the pharmaceutical company Pfizer Latin America.

Por Nayara Batschke

Sao Paulo, December 11 (EFE) .- Despite the “positive moment” he is experiencing Latin America in matters of vaccination, the great challenge for 2022 to face the coronavirus will bring vaccines to everyone from equitable way, considered in an interview with Efe the president of the pharmaceutical company Pfizer Latin America, Carlos Murillo.

A distribution most egalitarian of antidotes, he pointed out, is the main challenge for contain with success the major health emergency of the last century, but factors such as the lack of infrastructure or logistics continue to pose obstacles to achieving equity in the process.

“The difficult thing is that it is not a matter of lack of vaccine, that is, fortunately Pfizer and other companies have been able to produce vaccines, but you face complex situations in countries that do not have an infrastructure to deliver the vaccine” o “They don’t have the logistics to do it,” Murillo explained in a telematic interview with Efe.

According to calculations by the World Health Organization (WHO), 80 percent of the vaccines that have been administered in the world have been destined for the G20 countries, while the low-income nations have received less than 1 percent of the total vaccinations.

This inequality, according to the agency and other global health authorities, may favor the emergence of new virus variants, as is the case with the Omicron.

“As long as more people are not vaccinated around the world, these mutations will only continue to appear, so this is one of the really important challenges,” agreed Murillo.

In this framework, the president of the pharmaceutical company highlighted the “joint efforts” between world governments, companies, regulatory agencies and civil society for the development and subsequent application of immunizers in record time and scale.

“Just over a year ago, thinking that we were going to get a vaccine as effective as this vaccine seemed like something that could not be achieved.” So “we made possible what really seemed impossible,” he said.

By the end of 2021 Pfizer expects that a third of the vaccines that it delivers, developed in conjunction with Germany’s BioNTech, will be destined for low- and middle-income countries, in a commitment to ensure “fair and equitable access” to antidotes.

To guarantee its access, the pharmaceutical company signed bilateral agreements with 14 Latin American countries, in addition to working with the governments of the United States and Europe to include the arrival of the vaccine to other nations through global mechanisms such as the Covax initiative.

LATIN AMERICA, FROM PARIA TO WORLD EXAMPLE

At the regional level, Murillo said that he was “very happy and proud” of the progress of the vaccination in the countries of Latin America, which started “slower” when compared to other regions of the world but currently exceed the average global immunization rate, since 75 percent of the continent has the first dose and 55 percent have the full schedule .

“There are regions that have started before the Latin American countries, but (…) they have stabilized, while our countries continue to vaccinate,” with many “really well above the world average,” he celebrated.

The manager of Pfizer He also pointed out that, for the region, the main challenge will be the vaccination of groups that have not yet been immunized, such as children and adolescents.

Likewise, for 2022, Murillo sees a more “positive” scenario and a “much more controllable” situation of the pandemic, amid the reinforcements of vaccine coverage or the development of new treatments against COVID-19, such as an antiviral pill. that could reduce the risk of hospitalization and death by 89 percent among those infected and is awaiting authorization for use in the United States.

“We are progressing very well with vaccination, but there are going to be people who are going to become infected, so having the possibility of a highly effective treatment that avoids hospitalization and serious consequences for these patients is also very powerful,” he stressed.

In this sense, Murillo considers that the world is also more prepared to face the possible new mutations of the coronavirus, thanks to the advancement of technology that would allow a rapid adaptation of formulas and medicines.

“If tomorrow there are other types of mutations that end up leaving this coverage parameter, then there we have this advantage that the technology would allow us to come out with a new vaccine formula in up to 100 days” in the case of Pfizer, he assured.