World must pool resources on vaccine
On a sunny Sunday in May, I would have hoped to be playing cricket. Others will be looking forward to a game of tennis, a visit to the coast. We are all wondering when we might be able to invite friends and family for a Sunday barbecue.
As we begin to take tentative, hopeful steps, governments are scrambling to secure deals with pharmaceutical giants that put their citizens first. But neither Britain, nor any country, can afford to be short-sighted. For as long as Covid-19 is present somewhere, it is a threat everywhere. No country can return to normality until the world brings this pandemic to an end.
A YouGov poll commissioned by the Wellcome Trust research charity reveals 96 per cent of British adults believe governments should work together to ensure treatments and vaccines can be manufactured in as many countries as possible, and distributed globally.
The World Health Assembly, opening yesterday, is the time for all nations to urgently address how to do this. Governments, industry and philanthropy must prioritise the long-term and pool their resources, to ensure everyone benefits from a vaccine.
A fragmented approach will not succeed in an interconnected world. It will only prolong the current situation, leading to a rolling cycle of lockdowns, limited travel and trade, and even more strain on our healthcare system.
Even if every person in the UK was vaccinated, epidemics in other countries would have a knock-on impact on our economy. And if we do get a vaccine, we don’t know how long it might be able to protect us for.
Vaccines are international collaborations. No single country has the capacity to research, develop and manufacture one on its own.
In the UK, promising research into a Covid-19 vaccine is taking place across the country, with input and funding from multiple international sources. But even if one of the candidates were successful, we – like many countries – have limited manufacturing capacity.
To get a vaccine for the world, we must prepare to execute the largest and fastest vaccine testing and manufacturing scaleup in history. As soon as vaccines are ready, we will need to roll out billions of doses – and have the glass vials, syringes and other key ingredients ready, too.
No single country can do this alone. We need to run clinical trials across the world to make sure the vaccines work for everyone. We need multiple vaccines, multiple manufacturers, and multiple manufacturing sites across the world, to ensure the vaccines are fairly distributed and not limited to high-income countries.
Funding for vaccines has always come from multiple international sources. The Coalition of Epidemic Preparedness, which Wellcome co-founded in 2017 with Germany, Norway, Japan and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, is now supported by over 30 governments. The resources go towards creating vaccines for everyone.
Producing vaccines, treatments and tests for the world is our only way out of this pandemic. Global collaboration is paramount. Governments, industry and philanthropy must pool resources to pay for the risk, the research, manufacturing and distribution, but the vaccine should be available to everyone, regardless of where it has been developed or who has funded it. If countries start partnering with manufacturers to secure their own supplies, poorer countries will be excluded and left vulnerable. So, too, may many rich countries. And the world will have to grapple with fresh waves for years to come.