Medical campaigners urge pharmaceutical giants making Covid-19 vaccines to be transparent about the costs of any jab proven to work
Medical campaigners have demanded vaccine manufacturers in the UK and France reveal how much it costs to make any Covid-19 jab that is proven to work to ensure they do not profit from it.
Doctors Without Borders – officially known as Medecins Sans Frontieres – has made the call to French company Sanofi and the UK's GlaxoSmithKline.
The firms yesterday revealed that they will supply 200million doses of their jab to a global facility backed by the World Health Organization.
But campaigners fear the firms will try to profit from the vaccine and said they must be totally up-front about how much it costs to make, and sell it 'at-cost', meaning the price of each dose covers only the amount spent making it and no more.
MSF warned that pharmaceutical companies could not be trusted to do the right thing behind closed doors and that financial information about vaccines should be made public.
Pharmaceutical companies all over the world are racing to try and develop a vaccine that could slow down or stop the Covid-19 pandemic (stock image)
GERMAN PFIZER JAB COULD BE READY BEFORE OXFORD ONE - AND BE ROLLED-OUT BEFORE CHRISTMAS
Officials in the British government expect that a verdict on whether Pfizer Inc-backed COVID-19 vaccine works will be available before the results are in on AstraZeneca Plc's competing vaccine, it has been reported.
Britain believes that the vaccine, which Pfizer is co-developing with Germany's BioNTech SE, could be ready to distribute before Christmas, the Times said.
Pfizer's Chief Executive Albert Bourla has previously said the company could release data on whether or not the vaccine works as early as this month.
The U.S. drugmaker said this week if trials are successful the company expects to file for emergency authorization of the vaccine candidate from U.S. regulators shortly after it has enough safety data in late November.
Britain has agreed supply deals for six vaccine candidates including frontrunners from Pfizer and AstraZeneca.
However, the hopes of ending the Covid-19 pandemic with a vaccine were dealt a blow today as a senior British health chief warned the first approved jabs may not work.
Kate Bingham, head of the UK's Vaccine Taskforce, has already warned there is only a 'slim' chance scientists will have a jab before Christmas.
And now she has dampened hopes even further, warning that the first generation of vaccines — which are all still in human trials — are 'likely to be imperfect'.
The vaccine produced by Sanofi and GSK is one of at least seven that the UK Government has bought – officials confirmed in July that they had ordered 60million doses.
Human clinical studies of the vaccine began in September and a phase three trial – the late stage tests on a huge group of people – is expected to start in December.
The vaccine is based on the existing technology used to produce Sanofi's seasonal flu jab.
Genetic material from the surface protein of the SARS-CoV-2 virus is inserted into insect cells — the basis of Sanofi's influenza product — and then it is injected into a person to provoke an immune response.
Doctors Without Borders's Kate Elder said: 'Pharmaceutical corporations Sanofi and GSK must sell their vaccines at-cost and open their books to show the public exactly how much it costs to make the vaccine.
'There is no room for secrets during a pandemic and past experience tells us that we can't take pharma at their word without data to back up their claims.'
No company has yet shared any information on research and development, clinical trials or manufacturing costs of potential Covid-19 vaccines, MSF said.
But it said that this would be vital when the time comes for countries to actually buy the jabs if trials prove that they work safely.
Experts are concerned that richer countries like the UK, US, France and Germany could buy up huge amounts of vaccine stocks and leave poorer countries less able to afford them.
Global demand will be huge when a jab is proven to work – any company charging more than the minimum for its vaccine could make a massive profit.
More than half of the expected volume of doses of the best candidates so far has been bought up by just 13 per cent of the world, mainly high-income countries, the medical charity said.
Sanofi and GSK said in a joint statement today: 'We are committed to working with governments, partners, and payers to ensure that when new vaccines are approved, they will be available and affordable for people at a fair and reasonable price.
'Sanofi and GSK will apply a tiered pricing for COVAX, whereby lower income countries are intended to pay significantly lower prices for the adjuvanted vaccine than higher income countries.
'The details of the contracts and discussions we are engaged in are confidential. We recognise calls for transparency in this unprecedented situation and appropriate transparency will continue to be addressed in ongoing dialogue with funders.'
Human Rights Watch, in a separate report, said governments funding vaccines with public money should be transparent about terms and conditions attached.
The New York-based group urged states to back a proposal by India and South Africa to wave some aspects of intellectual property rules on patents to enable large-scale manufacturing and affordability.
A temporary IP waiver was debated this month in the World Trade Organization , but was opposed by the United States, European Union, Britain, Switzerland and others.
WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at an event on Tuesday: 'Since the beginning of the pandemic our priority has been to ensure that all people enjoy the fruits of science...
'In these difficult times the best health technologies and discoveries cannot be reserved only for a few, they must be available to all.'
'Sharing data and information that is often kept secret or protected by intellectual property could significantly advance the speed at which technologies are developed,' Dr Ghebreyesus added.
It comes as it was claimed last night that officials in the British government expect that a verdict on whether Pfizer Inc-backed Covid-19 vaccine works will be available before the results are in on Oxford University's competing vaccine.
Ministers believe the vaccine, which Pfizer is co-developing with German business BioNTech SE, could be ready to distribute before Christmas, the Times said.
Pfizer's Chief Executive Albert Bourla has previously said the company could release data on whether or not the vaccine works as early as this month.
The US drugmaker said this week if trials are successful the company expects to file for emergency authorization of the vaccine candidate from U.S. regulators shortly after it has enough safety data in late November.
Britain has agreed supply deals for six vaccine candidates including frontrunners from Pfizer and AstraZeneca.
WHICH VACCINES HAS THE UK SECURED DEALS FOR?
1. GlaxoSmithKline and Sanofi Pasteur: 60million doses
The Government revealed on July 29 it had signed a deal with pharmaceutical giants GlaxoSmithKline and Sanofi Pasteur
If the vaccine proves successful, the UK could begin to vaccinate priority groups, such as frontline health and social care workers and those at increased risk from coronavirus, as early as the first half of next year, the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy said.
Human clinical studies of the vaccine will begin in September followed by a phase 3 study in December.
The vaccine is based on the existing technology used to produce Sanofi's seasonal flu vaccine. Genetic material from the surface protein of the SARS-CoV-2 virus is inserted into insect cells - the basis of Sanofi's influenza product - and then injected to provoke an immune response in a human patient.
2. AstraZeneca (manufacturing University of Oxford's): 100million
AstraZeneca, which is working in partnership with Oxford University, is already manufacturing the experimental vaccine after a deal was struck on May 17.
Professor Sarah Gilbert, who is leading the Oxford team, is confident the jab could be ready for the most vulnerable people by the end of the year.
Her comments came after the results from the first phase, published in The Lancet on July 20, showed promise.
The team have genetically engineered a virus to look like the coronavirus - to have the same spike proteins on the outside - but be unable to cause any infection inside a person. This virus, weakened by genetic engineering, is a type of virus called an adenovirus, the same as those which cause common colds, that has been taken from chimpanzees.
3. BioNTech/Pfizer: 30million
US drug giant Pfizer - most famous for making Viagra - and German firm BioNTech were revealed to have secured a deal with the UK Government on July 20.
It reported positive results from the ongoing phase 2/3 clinical trial of one called BNT162b1 on July 1. The company is still running phase 2 trials at the moment.
Pfizer's vaccine is one called an mRNA vaccine, which do not directly inject bits of the virus into the body but send genetic material.
mRNA vaccines programme the body to produce parts of the virus itself by injecting the body with a molecule that tells disease-fighting cells what to build. The immune system then learns how to fight it.
4. Valneva: 60million
The Government has given Valneva — whose vaccine is understood to be in the preclinical stages of development — an undisclosed amount of money to expand its factory in Livingston, Scotland.
While the Government revealed a 60million dose deal on July 20, the company said it had reached agreement in principle with the UK government to provide up to 100million doses.
Valneva's jab is an inactivated whole virus vaccine, meaning it injects a damaged version of the coronavirus itself into the body.
The virus has been destroyed in a way that makes it unable to cause infection, but the body still recognises it as a dangerous intruder and therefore mounts an immune response which it can remember in case of a real Covid-19 infection.
5. Janssen (Johnson & Johnson): 30million
The Government has agreed to buy 30million doses of a vaccine made by Janssen if it works.
Officials have agreed to help the company in its development of the jab by part-funding a global clinical trial. The first in-human trials of Janssen's jab began in mid-July and are being done on adults over the age of 18 in the US and Belgium.
The jab is named Ad26.COV2-S, recombinant, and is a type of jab called a viral vector recombinant vaccine.
Proteins that appear on the outside of the coronavirus are reproduced in a lab and then injected into the body to stimulate an immune reaction.
The 'Ad' part of the vaccine's name means it works using an adenovirus - a virus best known for causing the common cold - as a vehicle to transport the coronavirus genetics into the body.
6. Novavax: 60million
Britain has ordered 60million doses of a vaccine being developed by the US-based company Novavax. It will help to fund late-stage clinical trials in the UK and also boost plans to manufacture the vaccine in Britain.
Novavax's jab, named NVX-CoV2373, showed positive results in early clinical trials.
It produced an immune response in 100 per cent of people who received it, the company said, and was safe and 'generally well-tolerated'.
Novavax's candidate is also a recombinant vaccine and transports the spike proteins found on the outside of the coronavirus into the body in order to provoke the immune system.
7. Imperial College London: Unknown quantity
Imperial College London scientists are working on Britain's second home-grown hope for a jab. The candidate is slightly behind Oxford's vaccine in terms of its progress through clinical trials, but is still a major player.
The UK Government is understood to have agreed to buy the vaccine if it works but details of a deal have not yet been publicised.
Imperial's jab is currently in second-phase human trials after early tests showed it appeared to be safe.
Imperial College London will try to deliver genetic material from the coronavirus which programs cells inside the patient's body to recreate the spike proteins. It will transport the RNA inside liquid droplets injected into the bloodstream.