Director-General (DG), Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has called on COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers to do more to ramp up production in developing countries. This is to combat the vaccine supply shortage that is excluding many lower-income nations from access.
She said that cooperation on trade, and action at the WTO, would help accelerate vaccine scale-up.
Meanwhile, DG Okonjo-Iweala indicates that because of a shortage of COVID-19 vaccine supplies, only 75 countries had the vaccines. Conversely, about 115 countries still wait as people die.
She said not only was this morally “unconscionable”, but it would prolong the pandemic and cause economic harm to all countries. DG Okonjo-Iweala argued, “it is in all of our self-interest to cooperate in dealing with this problem of the global commons.”
vaccine Production
The Director-General saw cause for hope in the first vaccine deliveries to developing countries by the COVAX facility. This is part of the global mechanism for procuring and equitably distributing COVID-19 vaccines. Nevertheless, production and delivery volumes remained too low.
“We have to scale up and scale out COVID-19 vaccine production, particularly in emerging markets and developing countries”.
She noted that it takes many years to build new manufacturing facilities from scratch. She however, advised that increasing production in the short-term means “making the most of existing manufacturing capacity”. Dr. Okonjo-Iweala added that repurposing facilities and vetting them for safety and quality can happen in six or seven months. This is less than half as long as previously thought.
Meanwhile, she noted that vaccine manufacturers would send a signal that they are taking action to bring more production online . And “that people and governments in low- and middle-income countries can expect to get access to affordable vaccines within a reasonable timeframe”.
DG Okonjo-Iweala indicated that companies in India and elsewhere are already manufacturing COVID-19 vaccines under license. However, she is calling for more of such arrangements are necessary.
Constraints to Vaccine production
Discussions during the conference had highlighted three constraints to ramping up production. This includes scarcity of raw materials, shortages of qualified and experienced personnel, and supply chain problems. These are problems linked to export restrictions and prohibitions as well as excessive bureaucracy.
The WTO’s mandate on trade facilitation, quantitative trade restrictions, and trade policy monitoring were relevant to the latter challenges in particular. This is because vaccine production relies on sourcing components and ingredients from multiple countries. She said that trade restrictions would slow down production, and make it more expensive.
Nevertheless, DG Okonjo-Iweala noted WTO rules do allow for export restrictions or prohibitions to be “temporarily applied to prevent or relieve critical shortages” of essential products. She indicated that such restrictions must be notified to all members. DG Okonjo-Iweala noted that restrictions should be transparent, and proportionate to the problem at hand.
She reported that WTO monitoring indicates that 59 members and 7 observers still had some pandemic-related export restrictions or licensing requirements in place. These restrictions are primarily for personal protective equipment. Nevertheless, she indicated that these figures were lower than the 91 countries that had brought in such measures over the past year.
DG Okonjo-Iweala explained that her objective would be to encourage members to drop or reduce export restrictions or set timelines for phase-out, to help minimize problems in the vaccine supply chain.
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