Drug trials to test a new HIV prevention method was trialled in South Africa but now the country won’t be able to afford to buy it for the people who need it most. Here’s how to change this, writes Claire Waterhouse and Lebohang Kobola.
Rich countries vaccinate low-risk population while Africa waits and dies â MSF
7 April 2021 12:59 PM
Share This: The Economist projects that most Africans will only receive full vaccinations by the end of 2023, warns Doctors Without Borders.
Immediate equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines is critical for Southern Africa and the world to prevent more suffering and death
It is critical that Southern Africa immediately get access to Covid-19 vaccines,
Members of various civil societies gathered outside the embassies of the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Brazil, and other countries which opposed a temporary patent waiver on COVID-19 vaccines which was proposed to the World Trade Organization by South Africa and India. Picketers stood outside embassies and handed over letters calling on these countries to support the TRIPS Waiver to allow for more drug manufacturers to have access to vaccine designs. TADEU ANDRE/MSF
While South Africa shared its Covid-19 vaccine price publicly, the prices paid by the European Union (EU) are only publicly known due to an accidental tweet of the EU’s price list by Belgium’s Budget State Secretary, Eva De Bleeker.
Pharmaceutical companies have provided a range of justifications for charging different countries different prices for the same vaccines. These justifications include the income-level and size of procuring countries, the provision of public investment towards vaccine development and manufacturing scale-up by countries, the timing of orders and delivery, and the willingness of buyers to maintain price secrecy.
While these justifications may sound rational and even fair at face value, they often do not hold up against evidence of what countries are actually paying.
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