Ireland submits expression of interest to global Covid-19 shared vaccine procurement plan
Ireland is one of 80 countries to have submitted non-binding expressions of interest in signing up to a global procurement initiative for new Covid-19 vaccines and partnering with low- and middle-income economies.
The 80 potentially “self-financing” countries have submitted non-binding expressions of interest to the initiative known as, the Covid-19 Vaccine Global Access (COVAX) Facility.
The COVAX Facility is to pool buying power from participating economies to provide volume guarantees across a range of promising vaccine candidates.
With volume guarantees, the World Health Organization (WHO) states that vaccine manufacturers are facilitated to make early, at-risk investments in manufacturing capacity.
In order to be able to secure enough doses of vaccines to protect the most vulnerable populations, such as health workers and the elderly, all potential self-financing participants are to confirm intent to participate by August 31.
The next step is for participating countries to sign-up to binding commitments to join the COVAX Facility by September 18, with first upfront payments to follow, no later than October 9.
The self-financing countries are to partner 92 low- and middle-income economies. The 92 economies are eligible to be supported by a COVAX Advance Market Commitment (AMC) funding instrument.
COVAX was set up as a vaccines pillar to accelerate the development, production and equitable Covid-19 tests, treatments, and vaccines. The goal of the vaccines pillar is to end the acute phase of the global pandemic by the end of 2021.
The global approach is co-led by three groups — the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), Gavi (the Vaccine Alliance) and the World Health Organization (WHO). The three are working in partnership with developed and developing country vaccine manufacturers.
Nine candidate vaccines are currently being supported by CEPI, seven of which are currently in clinical trials.
Governments, vaccine manufacturers, organisations and individuals had committed $1.4 billion towards vaccine research and development (R&D) so far, according to the WHO, but an additional $1bn was urgently needed to continue to move the portfolio forward.
The success of COVAX hinges not only on countries signing up to the COVAX Facility, but also filling key funding gaps for both COVAX R&D work and a mechanism to support participation of lower-income economies in the COVAX Facility, added the WHO.
The nine candidate vaccines are: Inovio, USA (Phase I/II); Moderna, USA (Phase III); CureVac, Germany (Phase I); Institut Pasteur/Merck/Themis, France/USA/Austria (Preclinical); AstraZeneca/University of Oxford, UK (Phase III); University of Hong Kong, China (Preclinical); Novavax, USA (Phase I/II); Clover Biopharmaceuticals, China (Phase I); and University of Queensland/CSL, Australia (Phase I).
A further nine are under evaluation and conversations are underway with other major producers.
The further nine vaccines currently being evaluated for inclusion in the Facility include two from the US, two from China, two from the USA, one from South Korea, one from the UK and one global, multi-manufacture partnership. Two of these are in Phase I trials, two are tech transfers and the remainder are at the discovery stage.
“By pooling resources and acting in solidarity through the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator and the COVAX Facility, we can ensure that once a vaccine is available for Covid-19, it’s available equitably to all countries,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the WHO.
