(Bloomberg) After racing to build capacity and meet once seemingly insatiable orders for Covid-19 shots, the global vaccine industry is facing waning demand as many late-to-market producers fight over a slowing market.
Even as boosters are likely to keep demand alive for COVID-19 inoculations worldwide, the desperate shortages that existed for much of last year have waned.
By Julia Hollingsworth, Saruul Enkhbold and Amy Sood, CNN
In Mongolia, hospitals are overwhelmed. In the tiny archipelago of Seychelles, more than 100 new Covid-19 cases are being reported each day. And in Chile, a nationwide lockdown was lifted this week but the country is still reporting thousands of daily cases.
What links these countries is that they have each fully inoculated more than 50% of their populations, largely with Chinese-made coronavirus vaccines. And that’s raised questions over the vaccines’ efficacy.
If the Chinese vaccines aren’t working, that’s a huge problem and not just from a health perspective. Beijing has staked its reputation on providing other countries with vaccines.