7th World Investment Forum event: Pandemic preparedness beyond COVID-19
21 October 2021
Investing in vaccine production and supply for low and middle-income countries
Excellencies,
Ladies and gentlemen,
I would like to welcome you to this session on “Pandemic preparedness beyond COVID-19” in which we will discuss building capacity for production and supply of vaccines in low and middle-income countries.
We are all aware of the shortcomings of the current global vaccine supply system. The first COVID-19 vaccine was administered in the UK already more than ten months ago. Yet, in many low-income countries, and encompassing a large part of Africa, only a small fraction of the population has received a COVID-19 vaccination. And this despite the global cooperation through COVAX – the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access programme.
There are numerous reasons for the stark inequality in access to vaccines, including trade related measures that affect global supply of vaccines, as well as the impact of the early competitive procurement of vaccines by developed countries.
Given the significance of vaccine production, we convened a meeting on this topic earlier this year in March. At that time, key international and strategic players discussed efforts to build vaccine production and supply capacity in low and middle-income countries. Panellists underscored the need for and benefits of globally distributed production capacity in terms of ensuring equitable access to life saving technologies.
Today, we want to take stock of progress made, partnerships that have been established, challenges encountered, and next steps required to move forward.
This is an important topic for UNCTAD. We have worked on pharmaceutical sector development in developing countries for many years, precisely because of the sector’s importance for national public health systems. The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated countries’ vulnerability in this regard. The crisis laid bare global supply chain constraints for medicines, medical supplies and vaccines.
From our work in this area, I would like to point out the following insights:
Past experience suggests that countries push to build vaccine production capacity during a crisis, but are quick to abandon these efforts once the crisis has abated. This is exactly what happened during the H1N1 crisis. Hence, the lesson learned is that countries and development partners should remain committed to building and preserving vaccines production in good times so that capacity is there when a crisis strikes. As regards our contribution to this task, we will continue to monitor progress, offer consensus building fora like this, and collaborate with partners on important local production initiatives.
Second, we need to recognize the technological, financial and regulatory complexities of vaccines production. We applaud the World Health Organisation for establishing a mRNA hub in South Africa, and the generous financial contributions by development partners. Also, other similar programmes launched by bilateral, regional and international development assistance providers are very positive developments.
Looking at it from an investment angle, the question of the business case for investing in vaccine production and how to make this investment sustainable are important. The challenge is to ensure the necessary demand as well as to preserve the capacity built during a crisis for future preparedness. Without continuous financial support to keep the required skills and facilities operating, this is hardly feasible.
Moreover, while it is important to have globally distributed production, not all countries should invest in bulk vaccine production capacity as this would lead to excess supply. However, vaccine and bio-pharmaceutical value chains are dense, involving complex sets of inputs, packaging and delivering mechanisms. This offers many opportunities for suppliers to participate in the chain.
A regional perspective can add to the business case. The aggregation of demand can assist the sustainability of investment into vaccine production. A regional approach would require building consensus and strong cooperation among low and middle-income countries for regional vaccine value chains. This is an area we need to further explore.
Finally, there is the issue of intellectual property related to vaccines. The support to grant a waiver from the obligations of the World Trade Organisation Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights related to vaccines is an important development. In the TRIPS Council meeting earlier this month, WTO members noted points of convergence on how to provide a response on intellectual property to COVID-19. It would be an important accomplishment if a substantive consensus could be reached on this issue before the 12th Ministerial Conference.
I also would like to mention that in the case of vaccine production, voluntary partnerships often yield better outcomes in terms of sharing know-how than regulatory approval. Countries could therefore consider such partnerships as complementary. At the same time, we should consider all potential policy tools and incentives developed countries can offer to their research institutions and vaccines manufacturers to transfer technology and know-how to their counterparts in low and middle-income countries.
Ladies and gentlemen,
The task ahead is not easy. The journey from nationalism to equity in production and supply of vaccines is complex and will require long-term commitment.
Thank you for your attention.
