, the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer by volume, has set a ceiling price of $3 per dose for the proposed
for India and low-and middle-income countries (LMICs).
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will provide an at-risk funding of $150 million to Gavi (Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation), which will be used to support Serum to manufacture potential vaccine candidates, including the ones from UK firm
Significantly, the ceiling price is only for vaccines proposed to be distributed to 92 countries under the Covax alliance — co-led by Gavi, Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and World Health Organization (WHO), formed to accelerate development of
vaccines and ensure their rapid and equitable access.
The company on Friday entered into a partnership with Gavi and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to accelerate the manufacture and delivery of up to 100 million doses for these countries. Of this, up to 50 million doses are expected to be made available in India alone, sources close to the development told TOI. Besides, India is also expected to get upto 50% of the one billion doses from Astra Zeneca, and a part of the one billion doses from Novavax, as part of their agreement with Serum Institute.
Through the partnership, the company will accelerate manufacture and delivery of up to 100 million doses as part of the agreement for India and LMICs, as early as the first half of 2021, Adar Poonawalla, CEO of Serum Institute said.
The collaboration will provide upfront capital to Serum to increase manufacturing capacity, so that once a vaccine gains regulatory approval and WHO prequalification, doses can be produced at a scale for distribution to India and LMICs.
Doses are expected to be allocated on a proportional basis across 92 countries, and in accordance with World Health Organization’s global allocation framework, which is currently under development. The framework prioritizes healthcare professionals and frontline and essential workers in each geography, in addition to those most at-risk from the virus, such as people over 65 or those with underlying health conditions.
The timeline will ultimately depend on the results of the phase 3 trials, and approval from
and WHO prequalification. In the best-case scenario, the doses should be delivered in the first half of 2021.
Experts pointed out that additional manufacturing capacity may be needed at a global level and specifically for India, and hence require increased multilateral, government and philanthropic funding.
The collaboration between Gavi, Serum, and Gates Foundation supports the efforts of ACT Accelerator's vaccines’ pillar, also known as Covax. Decisions around investment in manufacturing are taken in close collaboration between these three organisations.
CurlSagan on August 8th, 2020 at 21:42 UTC »
I just want to point out that the $3 cost is the target "cap" price for the Gates Foundation. In all likelihood, poorer areas will have their cost further subsidized down to free or nearly-free. Everyone complaining that it "should be free" is kinda misreading the point of this statement. They're trying to set the maximum price to $3 to prevent shady clinics and middle-men from excessively marking-up vaccine prices when the vaccines become available. $3 is not the actual price that people will pay in impoverished areas. It's the maximum amount.
Why is this important? They need to get the word out that the price cap is $3 so that, by the time in January or whenever the vaccine is available, the general public will be aware that the price is supposed to be under $3. This will help against markups and the oncoming flood of black market vaccine sellers.
It's smart to set an early, easily-remembered cap price on vaccines and broadly publicize it so that people can tell when they're being ripped off. It also has the side-benefit of psychologically anchoring people to the idea of a $3 vaccine in countries that aren't impoverished. The Gates Foundation and Serum Institute can drive down the price of different vaccines in the US and elsewhere just by popularizing the idea of $3 vaccines to the world.
It's a good, catchy idea: 3 dollar vaccines. It's like the 5 dollar footlong sandwich at Subway, which was catchy enough that it made people reluctant to buy from Subways that weren't honoring the price. I hope 3 dollar vaccines takes off. The Gates foundation maybe should come up with an annoying ad jingle.
FreeSpeachcicle on August 8th, 2020 at 21:06 UTC »
A swarm of US pharmaceutical company execs and their shareholders just coughed up a little champagne....aboard their Bahaman registered yachts.
eileen404 on August 8th, 2020 at 20:47 UTC »
So it'll be cheaper to fly to India, spend two weeks in quarantine, get a vaccine and fly back than to get it in the US.