Covid-19 vaccine makes progress in India, USA, and other countries

This week, news from the United States of America indicated preliminary approval of the Pfizer-backed coronavirus vaccine, which is likely to be available in December on a priority basis in the United States. 

California, the most populous state, has indicated it will set up a review board to examine the efficacy and safety of the vaccine, which has received tentative approval from US public health leaders such as Dr Anthony Fauci, the head of the Infectious Diseases Institute. 

In terms of mortality, the United States has registered anywhere between 220,000 and 300,000 deaths from Covid-19 if you use diagnosed deaths and likely cause of death respectively. 

The rise in the number of reported infections continues to rise as testing becomes more readily available and currently a big budget battle is in Congress to set up a national testing plan. 

A US vaccine is likely to be out of reach for most countries given the high development costs and rapid need to cover the entire vulnerable population.

However, the international public health is looking with great attention to developments in India. 

The Guardian on October 20 reported that three batches of vaccines are one stage behind the US ((Stages 2/3) and the first from Astra Zeneca is likely to first be available at the same time in December 2020. 

India is the world’s largest supplier of drugs (60 per cent) and has the renowned Serum Institute behind the first batch. 

US mega-company majorly known for baby consumer products Johnson and Johnson is the second developer, which is contracting an Indian pharmaceutical house to develop another vaccine. These developments are a big opportunity for India to showcase its developments in medicine by delivering a global cure. 

The hastiness of development, however, according to the same report, may contribute to a high unit cost of GBP 3.80 per vaccine. The Guardian story also adds significant costs associated with its movement in high temperature countries, India being just one of them as its’ supposed to be transported at -70C temperatures.

In the group of 100 vaccines being developed globally, only about 20 are likely to make the mark. Russia is planning to start vaccinations of frontline workers this month although it is being accused of espionage by the British, who are developing with Astra Zeneca another vaccine backed by the British taxpayer with an advance order of 100 million vaccines, according to the BBC. 

Russia, a less populous country, has seen a rapid increase in Covid-19 infections. There was a report from Parliament of Uganda of a $5 million kitty to develop a Covid-19 vaccine. 

This vaccine effort is likely to continue for the next few years due to two major reasons: 
First, economic disruption caused by Covid-19 is real and a threat to a number of industries and economic activities, air travel, tourism and hospitality, merchandising, services, etc. 

Covid-19 has sweated the financial resources available for healthcare in most countries. In India, the home of some of the more credible trials, is expecting to spend more than GBP 1.25 billion on vaccine procurement. 

This week, two measures came out of Tanzania, availability of testing and a significant credit of $45m from the African Development Bank to support the Treasury’s $109m effort to fight Covid-19.

A Ugandan official (RDC), Maj David Matovu, in Kyotera at the border with Tanzania, was happy with the new testing regimen in the EAC’s largest country. 

The second are the results of the WHO Solidarity trial, which have discounted the effectiveness of anti-malarial cocktails on clinical Covid cases. 

The opposite result would have significantly reduced the cost of treatment for the clinical cases and allowed local manufacturers like Cipla owners of Quality Pharmaceuticals to ramp up production for drugs in tablet form. 

The vaccine from initial reviews is likely to be taken nasally, but little information is available as to whether it will be like flu shots taken annually or a one-time immune booster.

Mr Ssemogerere is an attorney at Law and an advocate |[email protected]