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| Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine / AFP-Yonhap |
By Kim Hyun-bin
Medical experts, academics and scientists have been calling on wealthy countries to share COVID-19 vaccines with lower-income countries, in order to reduce the risk of new mutant variants emerging.
Despite the warnings, vaccine distribution in low-income countries have been highly limited, leading to the emergence of the Omicron variant in southern Africa, which has a large number of mutations and is more easily transmissible.
The inequality in vaccine distribution and major pharmaceutical companies, namely Pfizer, aiming to maximize their profits in a time of crisis has been pointed as the cause of the continue spread of the virus.
According to the compound data released from Our World in Data, a statistical site built by Oxford University and the World Health Organization (WHO), only 6.3 percent of people in low-income countries have received their first vaccination as of Thursday. On the other hand, the vaccination rate in high-income countries was 74.5 percent on average, and 44.7 percent in middle-income countries, with the average primary vaccination rate in countries around the world standing at 55.3 percent.
Only 2 percent of people in low-income countries had been fully vaccinated against the coronavirus.
Pfizer has been facing growing scrutiny over its profiteering in vaccine sales and the proportion of doses that it delivered to low-income countries, The Guardian reported recently.
This comes in contrast to AstraZeneca which agreed to sell its vaccines at cost amid the global health crisis.
According to The Observer, Pfizer is selling it vaccines more than 30 times the price as one dose of the Pfizer vaccine costs only 76 pence (1,193 won), but Pfizer is selling it for 22 pounds (34,562 won), which is contradictory to Pfizer's stance that it would supply low-income countries on a not-for-profit price and all other countries were being offered the vaccine at a significantly discounted rate.
U.S. health official Tom Frieden accused Pfizer of "war profiteering" during the pandemic.
Pfizer says it aims to deliver at least 2 billion doses to low- and middle-income countries by the end of 2022.
A report released last month by the People's Vaccine Alliance accused Pfizer and other pharmaceutical companies of selling the majority of their vaccine doses to rich countries, leaving the low-income countries empty-handed.
Local bio firms could take advantage of vaccine shortage
The Korean government emphasized the need for equitable distribution of vaccines at the G20 meeting as well as the international cooperation to restore macroeconomic policies and the global trade system.
The Ministry of Strategy and Finance announced that Deputy Finance Minister Yoon Tae-sik attended the G20 Vice Finance Ministers and Central Bank Vice Governors Meeting held last week in Bali, Indonesia, to emphasize the need to increase global distribution rates.
The low distribution rate of vaccines could become an opportunity for local bio firms which have signed deals to act as contract development and manufacturing organizations (CDMO) for both Moderna and AstraZeneca vaccines.
Samsung Biologics produces Moderna vaccines and SK Bioscience produces AstraZeneca. The two companies, which achieved high profitability through contract manufacturing, plan to expand their business to better meet global demand.
Samsung Biologics increased the number of CDMO plants to three within nine years while the fourth plant is currently under construction in Songdo, Incheon. Once completed, the total production capacity will increase to 620,000 liters. In addition the fifth and sixth factories are also set to be built.
In July last year, SK Bioscience inked a deal with AstraZeneca to produce hundreds of millions of vaccines to be supplied to the world.
