United Nations published this video item, entitled “COVAX: signing advance purchase agreement with Pfizer – WHO Press Conference (22 January 2021)” – below is their description.
COVAX, the global initiative to ensure rapid and equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines for all countries, regardless of income level, today announced the signing of an advance purchase agreement with Pfizer for up to 40 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine candidate, which has already received WHO emergency use listing.
“On December 31st, the last day of last year, our COVID-19 vaccine was the first to be granted a World Health Organization emergency use listing. And today, we are proud to have this opportunity to provide doses that will support COVAX efforts towards vaccinating healthcare workers at high risk of exposure in developing countries and other vulnerable of course populations,” said Albert Bourla, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Pfizer.
COVAX also confirmed today that it will exercise an option – via an existing agreement with Serum Institute of India (SII) – to receive its first 100 million doses of the AstraZeneca/Oxford University-developed vaccine manufactured by SII.
“Together, these announcements mean COVAX could begin delivering doses in February, provided we can finalize a supply agreement for the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, and emergency use listing for the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine. COVAX is on track to deliver 2 billion doses by the end of year,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO’s Director-General.
Of these first 100 million doses, the majority are earmarked for delivery in the first quarter of the year, pending WHO Emergency Use Listing. The WHO review process, which is currently underway, follows approval for restricted use in emergency situations by the Drugs Controller General of India earlier this month, and is a critical aspect of ensuring that any vaccine procured through COVAX is fully quality assured for international use. According to the latest WHO update, a decision on this vaccine candidate is anticipated by the middle of February.
COVAX also anticipates that, via an existing agreement with AstraZeneca, at least 50 million further doses of the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine will be available for delivery to COVAX participants in the first quarter of 2021, pending emergency use listing by WHO of the COVAX-specific manufacturing network for these doses. A decision on this candidate is also anticipated by WHO in February.
“Of course, we can do more and we need to do more. By our calculation with the right level of funding in place, COVAX could procure 2.3 billion doses of vaccines in 2021. This would equate to close to 1.8 billion doses for the 92 lower income countries in the COVAX Advanced Market Commitment or AMC as we call it. That’s enough to protect about 27 percent of the population in those low and lower middle income countries, which is an excess of the initial targets we laid out to protect those at highest risk, and we have the prospect of more doses to come through, both other deals and the dose sharing principles that we announced in December,” said Dr Seth Berkley, CEO of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, which leads COVAX procurement and delivery.
Preparations, led by WHO, UNICEF and Gavi, are already well under way for COVAX to deliver vaccines to economies eligible for support via the COVAX AMC, with Gavi making USD 150 million available from its core funding as initial, catalytic support for preparedness and delivery.
Building on the work of the past months supporting country readiness efforts, a “Country Readiness Portal” will be launched by WHO this month, which will allow AMC participants to submit final national deployment and vaccination plans (NDVPs). This is a vital step before allocations can be made, to ensure that delivered doses are able to be effectively deployed and to identify where, if necessary, further support is needed.
“In the coming weeks, UNICEF will begin transporting vaccines together with syringes and safety boxes to countries around the world. And we are working with airlines and freight and logistics providers to ensure safe and timely delivery,” said UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore.
The COVAX Facility intends to provide all 190 participating economies with an indicative allocation of doses by the end of this month. This indicative allocation will provide interim guidance to participants – offering a minimum planning scenario to enable preparations for the final allocation of the number of doses each participant will receive in the first rounds of vaccine distribution.
COVAX now has agreements in place to access just over two billion doses of several promising vaccine candidates. Negotiations continue for further doses to be secured through existing R&D agreements by COVAX co-lead the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), through evaluations of new products with promising results and through contributions from donors.
United Nations YouTube Channel
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