DW.- The world is watching the coronavirus vaccine, which could end the pandemic. Some countries have already bought millions of doses, but the price differs and the distribution can be slow.
The arrival of the COVID-19 vaccine makes the world’s population hold their breath. With more than 65 million cases diagnosed on the planet and exceeding one and a half million deaths, the pandemic has launched the pharmaceutical industry in search of a vaccine.
World leaders, scientists and the World Health Organization (WHO) call for vaccines to be accessible and safe for everyone, and large laboratories are requesting emergency licenses in different countries to make them reach the public as soon as possible.
However, distribution and vaccination in Latin America and the Caribbean is shaping up to be complex, and may not be as fast as you think. In the region, of about 650 million inhabitants, there are large sections of the population living in poor urban and rural areas, or those with difficult access, as well as with high temperatures, which seems to augur difficulties when it comes to storing vaccines that require less 70 degrees centigrade.
According to the WHO, in every country in the world there are three ways to obtain the vaccine. The first is through national access, with direct agreements between governments and manufacturers. The second is group access, with regional agreements to supply it. And the third, the global agreement, represented by COVAX, the multilateral platform of the WHO, the European Union and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to guarantee equitable access to vaccines against COVID-19 for all countries.
Within COVAX, to which several Latin American and Caribbean countries joined, including Mexico and Brazil, there are another 30 countries or territories that have the economic capacity to buy the vaccines, and another 10 will receive them free when they are available: Bolivia , Dominica, El Salvador, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua, Saint Lucia and Saint Vincent, and the Grenadine Islands.
Storage and distribution difficulties
The fact that some messenger RNA vaccines, a fragment of the genetic code of the virus, must be stored and distributed below 70 degrees Celsius, such as Pfizer-BioNTech, will mean that people will not in all cases go directly to the doctor and vaccinate, but vaccination centers with mega-freezers will have to be built, as is already being done in Germany, for example. Something that, in countries with fewer resources, such as India, or others in Asia, African countries and Latin America, will not be an easy task. Wherever financing instruments are lacking and where access to the population is difficult, concrete gestures of international solidarity will be needed, according to the WHO, which estimates that vaccinating 20% of the Latin American and Caribbean population would cost more than 1,000 million euros. Dollars.
Several countries foresee the totally free vaccination of their citizens from December 2020 and early 2021. This was announced by, among others, Argentina, Colombia, Mexico and Peru. Priority for vaccination are risk groups, health sector employees and those over 60 years of age.
Shopping for different vaccines
Mexico, for example, with about 130 million inhabitants, the second most populous country in Latin America, plans to vaccinate 10 million people per month for free, as announced by the president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador. His government bought 34 million doses from Pfizer-BioNTech, and that company will take care of keeping them deep-frozen. It also has agreements with the Chinese CanSino and with the Russian Gamaleya, of which it will acquire 35 and 32 million doses respectively. Likewise, that country is within the COVAX initiative with 20%, that is, 51.5 million doses through that mechanism.
On the other hand, Argentina also bought 22 million doses of AstraZeneca and 25 million doses of the Russian Sputnik V, from Gamaleya, which also proved to be more than 95% effective. The Argentine government allocated 170 million dollars to purchase the vaccines, and it is one of the ones that has secured the most doses according to its population.
Also Brazil, where about a third of the total population of the subcontinent lives – the second country with the highest number of deaths from covid – announced the purchase of 50 million doses of Gamaleya, as well as 100 million vaccines from AstraZeneca.
Peru aims to vaccinate before April 2021, when presidential elections are held, some 24 million people. So far, it has about 16 million doses, 9 million of which are from Pfizer-BioNTech. Your biggest challenge will be keeping the vaccines frozen.
Chile wants to start vaccinating in December and has secured 10 million doses from that company, as well as 7.6 million from COVAX and 4 million from AstraZeneca-Oxford, among others. Venezuela bet on Sputnik V and Sinovac.
Generally speaking, the Inter-American Development Bank forecast an average cost of the vaccines $ 10.55 per dose. But the prices that are considered to date vary a bit.
COVID-19 Vaccination Center in Wales, Great Britain.
The most expensive: Modern
Moderna’s messenger RNA or mRNA vaccine is also 95% effective, according to the company. It is the most expensive, and would cost about 21 euros ($ 25). This can be stored at temperatures of 20 degrees below zero.
Johnson & Johnson
The fourth pharmaceutical company in the world develops the vaccine against COVID-19 through its Belgian subsidiary Janssen. There is no data yet from the large-scale trial in the US, but the dose could cost $ 20.
Pfizer-BioNTech: “Medium” Price
The price of the vaccine from the Pfizer-Biontech alliance, also made of mRNA, is currently estimated in Europe between 15 and 17 euros (about 19 dollars to change), “30% cheaper than those of other laboratories against seasonal flu” , according to the company’s press officer, Sally Beatty. The BioNTech dose would also be 95% effective. The biggest difficulty it presents is that it must be stored at less than 70 degrees Celsius below zero.
Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine against COVID-19.
Gamaleya
The Russian viral-vector Sputnik V from Russian laboratories Gamaleya costs less than $ 10, according to its developers, and is 92% efficient. It will be produced not only in Russia, but also in Brazil, India, China, South Korea and Hungary. It is stored at normal refrigerator temperature.
CanSino
CanSino’s Chinese vaccine, which would cost about $ 4 a dose, would be another of the most affordable, after AstraZeneca-Oxford.
The cheapest: AstraZeneca-Oxford
The cheapest vaccine dose could be that of AstraZeneca, which, in collaboration with the Jenner Institute at the University of Oxford, plans to sell it at the cost of production: 2.5 euros ($ 2.8). Given that it is a double dose, the total price per citizen would be 5.6 euros, well below those of Pfizer or Moderna. Spain has bought 31.5 million doses of this vaccine that, according to preliminary data, would be between 62% and 90% effective. It can be stored at normal refrigerator temperature. “Our goal is to supply the vaccine to everyone. We have an objective that is to also do it without profit, that is, we will deliver the vaccine at factory prices all over the world ”, explained Pascal Soriot, general director of the pharmaceutical company, to the RTL radio station.
Sinovac, CoronaVac
Neither of these two Chinese companies has released the exact price of their vaccine doses. Sinovac’s experimental vaccines were said to be offered in China at $ 60 a dose in October 2020. Bio Farma, Indonesia’s state-owned company, spoke of about $ 13.60.
Sinovac Chinese vaccine transport. (7.12.2020).
Argentina and Mexico also announced that they will jointly produce the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine for “all of Latin America”, with the exception of Brazil, which carries out another policy in this regard. Argentine President Alberto Fernández reported that each dose will cost “between 3 and 4 dollars.” It will be produced in Argentina, will be finalized and packaged in Mexico, and will be distributed in Latin American countries, according to the governments of both countries. In fact, as early as September, COVAX hoped to ensure that 92 lower-income countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America get “fast, fair, and equitable access” to COVID-19 vaccines.
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