Covid vaccine could reach Kenya by late 2021

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