By John Muchangi, NAIROBI Kenya
Kenyans are likely to wait until late next year to receive the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which has been found to be effective in preventing Covid-19.
Results released on Monday show it is more than
90 per cent effective against coronavirus.
The manufacturer is among more than 25 drug
makers who have expressed interest to supply developing countries with the
vaccine under the Sh300-per-dose plan led by the World Health Organization.
However, the company must first fulfil
pre-purchase orders signed with the United States, European Union and a few
other rich countries running into millions of doses, to be supplied this year.
The agreement with the US is for 100
million doses, but gives the US an option to buy an additional 500 million
doses.
Pfizer has also signed an agreement to supply the EU with 200
million doses with an option for a further 100 million doses. Deliveries could
start by next month.
Pfizer said it will be able to supply only 50
million doses by the end of this year, and around 1.3 billion by the end of
2021.
Prizer, which developed the vaccine with the
German drug maker BioNTech, published a statement saying the
vaccine is more than 90 per cent effective in preventing Covid-19 in
participants without evidence of prior SARS-CoV-2 infection.
“With today’s news, we are a significant step
closer to providing people around the world with a much-needed breakthrough to
help bring an end to this global health crisis,” Pfizer chairman and CEO Albert
Bourla said.
The development makes Pfizer and BioNTech the
first to announce positive results from a late-stage vaccine trial.
The vaccine comprises a two-dose schedule, and
protection is achieved 28 days after the initiation of the vaccination, the
company said.
“The first interim analysis of our global Phase
3 study provides evidence that a vaccine may effectively prevent Covid-19. This
is a victory for innovation, science and a global collaborative effort,” said
Ugur Sahin, co-founder and CEO of BioNTech, the collaborating German company.
The pair is jointly evaluating at least four
experimental Covid-19 vaccines and the latest data is for BNT162b2.
In Netherlands, Germany, France and Italy, the
vaccine will be priced at $3-4 (Sh300-Sh400) per dose, the Financial Times
reported.
In the US, the price will be $19.50 (about
Sh2,000) per dose.
Kenya is relying on the WHO-led Covax facility to
access Covid-19 vaccines at Sh300 per dose.
Unicef (which is part of Covax) says Pfizer
responded to an expression of interest in September to supply doses to the
Covax facility but no deal has been announced to date.
Through the Covax mechanism, countries can
initially secure vaccine doses for up to three per cent of their population
most at risk, rising to 20 per cent in a second phase in order to rationalize
supplies, according to a Fair Allocation Mechanism published by WHO.
Eleven vaccines are in late-stage trials around
the world while about 170 are in development globally.
The Kenya Medical Research Institute, which in
April said it was exploring a Kenyan-made prototype, has not moved forward.
“Basically it takes a process and time. For us
to identify a candidate vaccine prototype and putting all variables constant,
we might get a candidate biomarker in the next six months,” Kemri principal
research scientist Muuo Nzou told MPs on April 22. – The Star
No comments:
Post a Comment