TheCable

Mark Suzman, the CEO of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, has explained the timeline the foundation is working with to get COVID-19 vaccines to low and middle-income countries like Nigeria.

Speaking at a press briefing announcing the foundation’s latest commitment of $250 million to battling COVID-19, Suzman said widespread global vaccination may not happen till late 2021 or early 2022.

The Gates Foundation CEO said about $5 billion is needed to roll out the vaccines to 20 percent of Africans in need of the vaccines — but that fund is unavailable at the moment. Only $2bn has been raised so far, he added.

Responding to questions by TheCable on the timing of the rollout of the vaccine in Africa, including Nigeria, Suzman said a lot goes into timing. He explained that a number of hurdles need to be crossed before the vaccine can be available for general use in Africa.

“Exact timing will depend on some of those regulatory and manufacturing bottlenecks. Only one vaccine is currently approved and in use, and it’s only in one country — in the UK, ” he said.

Pfizer COVID-19 Vaccine difficult to distribute

“That’s the Pfizer/BioNTech, and that is a very complicated vaccine because it requires an ultracold chain, it needs to be transported at -70 degrees centigrade. It is difficult to distribute, probably it is not going to be the ideal one to scale,” Suzman said.

“It is more likely that some of the next wave of vaccines built by companies like Johnson & Johnson, Novavax, potentially the AstraZeneca one when we get clearer clinical data.

“Those should be easier to manufacture at a larger scale more cheaply, but there is a sequence, you need to wait for the regulatory approval, and you need to do the manufacturing scale-up.

“For some of those, we are already manufacturing, we are manufacturing at scale, in anticipation of what we hope will be regulatory approval. But realistically, at best, it’s probably some gradual roll-out for those 20 percent in the first half of next year.

“Hopefully, we can do [it] faster. But for full global coverage, especially if we can keep the resources and distribution going,  you’re likely looking at possibly the end of 2021 or early 2022 before you get widespread global vaccination.

“But again, treat those as speculative, there are so many steps en-route in terms of the phase III trial, the regulatory approval, the manufacturing, the procurement, the scale-up, the role of governments in being able to do that.

“If there is anything we can do to accelerate that, we will, and that is part of what our funding today is designed to do.”

Why is the UK getting before the other countries?

The Gates Foundation explained that the UK is getting the vaccine before everyone else based on its bilateral deal with the company producing the vaccine.

“What you’re seeing in the UK right now, and in some other wealthy countries, is a result of bilateral deals that individual countries have made with individual companies.

“While we respect the right of countries to do their own bilateral deals, our preference and what we are urging to the
world for both, equitable reasons, but also for what is going to be the best possible outcome socially and economically, is to work through pooled mechanisms like the COVAX one.

“That is the way Africa is going to get the fastest possible access to vaccines.”

Gates Foundation Funding Nine Vaccines Candidates

Suzman also told TheCable that the foundation is currently funding about nine vaccine candidates through a coalition.

“In terms of the direct funding of vaccine candidates, our primary support has been through CEPI, the organization I mentioned, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, which is a joint effort that we helped set up a few years ago with the Wellcome Trust, another other big foundation, with some governments like Norway, Germany and the UK.

“So we’ve made a number of direct contributions to them and they pool that financing again and try and make the investments for Global Access. I believe they have funded at least nine different vaccine candidates to date, and so indirectly, we’ve been part of that effort.

“In terms of the money and the resources raised, the hope is that we can get to the initial 2 billion, payment which COVAX is using to try and procure doses, and the $5 billion is designed to try to get enough vaccines for 20% of the population to be covered in Africa and other developing countries and that would be high-risk groups, healthcare workers, essential workers, and other high-risk groups.”

The foundation has consistently said it is seeking the fastest way to get to the best possible outcome, the lowest price, and the highest volume of vaccines to poor countries.

“We don’t believe the poorest country should pay anything,” Suzman added.