CORONAVIRUS – When the race for the Covid vaccine looks like a casino. While Russia has just announced the imminent marketing of very “first” serum against the coronavirus, states are working harder than ever to ensure that their citizens are among the first to receive a preventive injection. A strategy in dispersed order where crazy figures waltz, and where a few initiatives laboriously pave the way for a more collective future.
This competition to secure doses of vaccines, the French public got wind of it by a blunder: that of Paul Hudson, director (British) of the French laboratory Sanofi. The CEO of the pharmaceutical group declared in May that the United States would be entitled to “the biggest pre-orders” of the upcoming SARS-CoV-2 vaccine, and would be several days, if not several weeks, ahead of the rest of the world.
The leader may have backed down at full speed in front of the outcry aroused by his words in France, the damage was done. He had lifted the veil on the negotiations which, since the start of the epidemic, have agitated States, organizations and laboratories around huge pre-orders.
5 billion pre-ordered doses
United States, hit hard by the epidemic, have developed an all-out strategy. The Trump administration is increasing pre-orders from the most advanced labs in the development of a valuable vaccine. $ 955 million for Modern, already in phase 3 of clinical trials, 456 million for Johnson & Johnson, more than one billion for AstraZeneca … and 2.1 billion for for GSK and Sanofi, for a potential order of 100 million doses from these two laboratories Europeans.
The idea is to make sure you have an effective vaccine in your wallet. Because even when a treatment is approved, it may not be appropriate for all populations. “Some could be effective in reducing the transmission of the virus, others to protect the elderly … it is clear that we will have more than one type of vaccine on the market”, explains to the HuffPost Rebecca Weintraub, director of the “Global Health Delivery Project” at Harvard Medical University.
Very spendthrift, Washington is far, far from being the only one playing the game of pre-orders. Japan, Great Britain and France finance the same players, in proportions that are substantially the same, depending on their populations. Tokyo has secured 490 million doses, in particular from the American company Novavax.
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Among the French, we want to take the opportunity to relocate the pharmaceutical industry. After the Paul Hudson episode, Emmanuel Macron thus announced the immediate investment of 600 million euros in the creation of a new Sanofi production site in France: a way to ensure that the French will be among the first served. But it is the European Commission which oversees the pre-orders, ensuring that it is in very advanced stages to provide 700 million doses from AstraZeneca … and of course from the French Sanofi.
Same concern to make the national industry shine on the Chinese side, where three laboratories are at the clinical trial stage: Beijing has therefore focused on its national champions, CanSino, Sinovac and Sinopharm, without announcing any pre-orders, but partnerships, in particular with Brasil.
Different strategies for countries in scattered order
For smaller countries, one of the solutions is to join forces to order in bulk. Thus, Thursday, August 13, Argentina and Mexico announced that they would also produce the future AstraZeneca vaccine, to be able to provide 250 million doses to all of South America. Any? No. The irreducible Brazilian neighbor, once again, has decided to play his own score.
In addition to the Chinese candidate, the country of Jaïr Bolsonaro is participating in phase 3 trials of two European vaccines, respectively that of AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford … but also relies on the Russian vaccine. The Brazilian state of Parana has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Kremlin to test and produce Sputnik V on its soil. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates share this interest in the Russian treatment, and will take part in the latest clinical trials … up to the Philippine president, who has offered himself as a tester.
In total, more than 5 billion doses have been pre-ordered around the world, following slightly different strategies: 700 million doses for the United States with a maximum number of candidates, 700 million doses for the ‘European Union relying on regional champions, a rush on the most promising vaccines for countries where the pandemic is wreaking havoc, such as Brazil. But this race has a fundamental flaw.
In dispersed order, by placing their bets on the lab that will be the first to produce its vaccine in a mask, the States are making expensive bets. British Secretary of State for Business Alok Sharma tweeted that it was important “to invest in a diverse range of vaccines to increase our chances of getting the one that works”. Pre-orders are therefore bets, on one or more candidates, so as not to harm their own population, with the direct consequence of leaving behind those who have not placed their money on the right candidate … a logic that marginalizes them. developing countries.
160 countries for a vaccine … without the United States
However, unprecedented organizations have set in motion in the face of the global threat of Covid. Gavi, a gigantic partnership between the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation, is the standard. By drawing inspiration from the mechanisms put in place against Ebola and pneumococcus, the organization wants to “encourage manufacturers to produce sufficient quantities of vaccine against COVID-19, and to ensure their availability for developing countries”.
After raising $ 2 billion in funding, Gavi pre-ordered 300 million doses of vaccine from AstraZeneca. A first step in making the vaccine accessible from the first days to countries which do not have the means to play the betting game. This logic, Emmanuel Macron himself did not seem to reject it by declaring, the day after the incident with Sanofi “necessary that this vaccine be a global public good”?
Especially since this logic is not only philanthropic. Medically, joining pre-orders in a common initiative would be much more coherent, says Rebecca Weintraub. “We do not yet know the profiles of the vaccines tested, and having the greatest possible diversity of solutions would allow them to be allocated to the populations which are the most reactive to them.”
But if this call remains largely a wishful thinking despite international initiatives, it is not only a question of national champion and opinions to be satisfied. It is also because geopolitical issues further complicate cooperation, as demonstrated by an initiative of the European Commission.
In May, a global fundraiser was held in Brussels, organized by the commission, with the aim of financing the production and distribution of the vaccine to the poorest countries. 7.4 billion euros were collected, but the sum is less significant than the absent ones: Russia, India, Brazil, Argentina … and especially the United States were not present around Table.
Geopolitics is the strongest
The American administration had explained its absence by the fact that it used other donation channels to developing States. But at the time, the White House was rampaging against the World Health Organization, accused of being a puppet of China, and accusing Beijing of lying about the extent of the pandemic.
This cold war against Beijing, which had sent a representative to the European fundraising, is a much more credible cause for the absence of the United States around the table. A European official quoted by the Financial Times summed up: “Perhaps we naively thought that China and the United States would put aside their trade disputes. But it doesn’t get better. ”
The round tables and other international initiatives can therefore do nothing against the logic of national pre-orders. In a context where each country wants to be the first to get rid of the Covid threat, while stocks will necessarily be limited at first, resorting to multilateral solutions is not the priority. It is however the key to the eradication of the disease, recalls Rebecca Weintraub: “This is how we came to end with Polio. With a global initiative, commensurate with a pandemic ”.
See also on The HuffPost: The ranking of masks according to their effectiveness against the coronavirus
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