As of April 2021, a lot of wealthy countries have made contracts for the delivery of 4.6 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines. Interestingly, despite serious safety concerns, AstraZeneca, the British-Swedish pharmaceutical company, remains the leading supplier of the coronavirus vaccine.
According to a survey by Duke University, AstraZeneca is obliged to provide 2.4 billion doses of its vaccine to countries worldwide. The second popular vaccine is the one by Pfizer/BioNTech. The company is committed to providing its buyers with 1.5 billion jabs. The third rank is given to the Chinese vaccine Sinovac as the company is expected to supply 480 million doses. The fourth vaccine in high demand is Russia-made Sputnik V. Its producers are going to supply 303 million doses to the global market.
Referring to research by Duke Global Health Innovation Center, the world’s high-income countries account for the bigger share of the COVID-19 vaccine purchases. Such countries have booked 4.6 billion doses for the near term that is 53% of all purchased doses. At the same time, countries with medium and low income cannot afford to buy the appropriate volume of the vaccines, so they have booked just 770 million doses or 16% of the overall purchases.
The most powerful buyer of the COVID-19 vaccines is the European Commission, acting on behalf of 27 EU countries. The EU authorities have administered the delivery of 1.8 billion doses. The second largest buyer is the US, having purchased 1.2 billion doses. African countries have made contracts for the delivery of 680 million jabs. The UK has booked 475 million doses. Brazil has purchased 370 million doses.
Citing China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi, high-income countries buy more vaccines than they actually need to develop a public immunity among their nationals. Such unequal distribution is to blame for the deficit of vaccines in low-income countries. The Chinese top diplomat terms this state of affairs “vaccine nationalism”. However, the EU authorities reject such labels because they donate a share of vaccines to the COVAX initiative.
Pharmaceutical companies have to deal with troubles at production facilities that stall deliveries under their contracts. In April, 15 million doses got contaminated at Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca plants in Baltimore, the US.
British drugmaker AstraZeneca encountered a serious side effect during the vaccination campaign in the EU. After reports on blood clotting, a number of the EU countries decided to suspend the use of AstraZeneca vaccine. The UK health authorities intend to ban the use of the vaccine for people younger than 30 years old.
According to the data from the UK Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), 30 cases of blood clotting have been recorded after 18.1 million AstraZeneca jabs have been applied.
Experts reckon that all pharmaceutical companies involved are capable of producing 12 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines throughout 2021.
