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Run for a cure
Reuters staff
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – AstraZeneca needs to prove its claim that its potential COVID-19 vaccine has the lowest price of major candidates to date, nongovernmental organization Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said Tuesday, urging the company. to make its supply contracts public.
The British company said on Monday that its COVID-19 vaccine was 70% effective in pivotal trials and could be up to 90% effective, offering the global fight against the global pandemic a third new weapon that may be cheaper to produce, easier to deploy and faster to scale than rivals.
AstraZeneca said it will not profit from sales of its vaccine, which has been priced at around $ 3 per dose, versus at least four times more for the other candidates.
“MSF welcomes AstraZeneca’s commitment to sell the vaccine at a ‘non-profit’ price during the pandemic, but the reality is that it’s an empty promise unless we can prove these important claims with the data, “said Roz Scourse of the MSF medical group, also known as Doctors Without Borders.
The organization has urged AstraZeneca to disclose contracts signed with governments for its vaccine, under which there may be clauses limiting the price until the company declares the end of the health emergency, which may already be at July, according to media reports cited by MSF.
“This means that, after July 2021, AstraZeneca could charge governments and other buyers high prices for a fully publicly funded vaccine,” the organization said, adding that the company has received over $ 1 billion in public funding. for its COVID-19 vaccine candidate.
AstraZeneca had no immediate comments on the matter.
The company said a COVID-19 vaccine must be available globally and accessible to all who need it, and expressed its support for a procurement scheme co-led by the World Health Organization designed to ensure a rapid and equal global access to COVID-19 vaccines.
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