Leading pharmaceutical industry organizations urged on Wednesday to "
step up responsible dose sharing
" of Covid-19 vaccines around the world, believing that production will be sufficient to "
vaccinate the world's adult population
" by the end of the year. “
Currently, vaccines against Covid-19 are not reaching all priority populations in the world equitably. Manufacturers, governments and NGOs must work together to take urgent measures to act more on this inequality,
”said Wednesday in a joint statement the main professional associations of the sector based in Europe and the United States (IFPMA, PhRMA, EFPIA, ABPI, Vaccines Europe, BIO, ICBA).
Read also: Vaccines: Unicef urges the G7 and the EU to give more than 150 million doses to Covax
A sufficient number of doses for the entire world population
These associations estimate that 11 billion doses of vaccines could be produced by the end of 2021 - against 2.2 billion at the end of May - a number sufficient to "
vaccinate the world's adult population
". To “
step up responsible sharing of doses
”, this pharmaceutical lobby notably encourages governments well endowed with vaccines to share “
a significant portion of their doses
” via the Covax system, intended to supply underprivileged countries. To speed up vaccine production, “
trade barriers
” on “
raw materials, materials essential to manufacturing
” must be “
eliminated
”, and the displacement of a “
skilled labor
"prioritized, also claim these organizations.
The Covax system far from its objectives
Anti-Covid vaccines continue to be sorely lacking for lack of sufficient production, and the international Covax system, set up by the Vaccine Alliance and the Cepi (Coalition for innovations in epidemic preparedness) to try to avoid that the rich countries do not monopolize the main part of the precious doses, is far from achieving its objectives. It was supposed to ensure 20% immunization of the populations of participating countries by the end of the year, but by June, the system will be missing approximately 190 million doses. The goal of 20% "
is in danger
", warned Doctor Bruce Aylward, in charge of the Covax file at the WHO on Monday.
