Brussels: Pfizer and Bionech are set to displace AstraZeneca as the main supplier of Covid-19 vaccine to the global Covax program in early 2022, a shift that shows the increasing importance of their shots for poor countries.
Changes that are expected to come with headaches for recipient countries who do not have enough cold storage capacity to handle the Pfizer vaccine, and amid the risk of lack of syringe needed to manage the shot.
AstraZeneca is currently the most distributed vaccine by Covax, according to data from GAVI, the vaccine alliance that manages the program with the World Health Organization (WHO).
This program has so far provided more than 600 million shots to nearly 150 countries, where more than 220 million are astrazeneca and around 160 million pfizers.
But in the first quarter of Pfizer next year it is set to take over, according to GAVI and who is the number at the dose assigned by the Covax program for future supplies.
At the end of March, 150 million other Pfizer doses must be distributed by Covax, a WHO Document Show.
A gavi spokesman confirmed that Pfizer was far ahead in terms of the jab “allocated”, with around 470 million doses delivered or dipali for delivery, against 350 million from AstraZeneca.
Pfizer is the first provider of the Covid-19 vaccine to the European Union, the United States and Japan.
It has bilateral agreements for more than 6 billion doses, making it the largest supplier of Covid-19 vaccine, according to data from UNICEF, agency u.n.n.
But Astrazeneca has been seen as an important supplier for less developed countries, because the kick is cheaper and more easily delivered.
Covax is a heavy bet on AstraZeneca at the beginning of the pandemic, but the problem of supply and export restrictions from the top Indian producers gradually reduce dependence on Anglo-Sweden’s shots.
When the program faces a problem in securing a direct dose of vaccine makers in the middle of a global struggle for shooting, donations from rich countries become more important, playing pfizer into the main supplier to Covax.
The United States contributed most of the Pfizer shots to the program.
The cold chain and Changes Syringesthe forced Gavi rushes to invest more in cold chain capacity in recipient countries who do not have enough refrigerators and cold transportation equipment to handle pfizer shots, which require lower storage temperatures than astrazeneca vaccines.
This organization warns of inadequate cold chain capacity in several countries, according to internal reports submitted to the GAVI Board in early December and seen by Reuters.
The problem is exacerbated by the risk of lack of special syringes needed to manage the Pfizer vaccine, Gavi warns in the document.
Pfizer Jab is “the most difficult to send is given an ultra-cold chain and special syringe requirements”, said Gavi in ​​its internal document.
This is also “the most difficult to plan because of this (donated vaccines) often come up by recording and a little notice or by staggering and in small volumes and with short shelf life”, said the document.
Rich countries that donate Covid-19 vaccines with relatively short shelf life have become “big problems” for Covax, which officials said last week, because many doses were wasted.
A European Union official told the news of the news last week that the UE donation of the Pfizer Vaccine to Covax was slowed by the lack of syringes.
A second official who was familiar with the problem to Reuters that Gavi had to delay sending several pfizer doses from Europe due to lack of syringes.
Pfizer refused to comment on the syringe because it said it did not produce or buy it directly.
Because more doses are available for poor countries, UNICEF and those who have long warned of not enough supply of syringes that disable automatically, which are very important for inoculation in poor countries.
Auto-Disable key syringes automatically to prevent reuse, which are generally common in poorer countries and can spread disease.
To make everything more complicated, the syringes that are disabled are automatically needed for different Pfizer vaccines from standard syringes, said UNICEF.