Novavax: Rich countries getting new COVID vaccine before poorer ones
Source: Associated Press
Rich countries getting new COVID vaccine before poorer ones
By MARIA CHENG and ANIRUDDHA GHOSAL
March 24, 2022
NEW DELHI (AP) The company behind a COVID-19 vaccine touted as a key tool for the developing world has sent tens of millions of doses to wealthy nations but provided none yet to the U.N.-backed effort to supply poorer countries, a sign that inequity persists in the global response to the pandemic.
A quarter-million doses from the company were supposed to be available to the vaccine-sharing initiative, called COVAX, by March. But the U.N. agency in charge of deliveries says the first shipments now likely wont be made until April or May.
It wasnt supposed to be this way. The company, Novavax, got $388 million from one of the organizations leading COVAX to fast-track the vaccines development and help make the shot available in poorer countries.
The investment guaranteed COVAX the right of first refusal to the first Novavax doses, but the deal applied only to factories in the Czech Republic, South Korea and Spain, said Bjorg Dystvold Nilsson, spokesman for COVAX co-founder CEPI.
There are other factories that arent part of the deal and their shots are going elsewhere.
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Read more: https://apnews.com/article/covid-science-business-health-europe-778444506a72e8f9c3be327640b1929d