Waiver ‘critical element’ to boost supplies of Covid vaccines
PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa has welcomed the decision by the US to support a waiver on certain intellectual property rights provisions covering Covid vaccines. South Africa, with India, submitted a proposal for a Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (Trips) Waiver on October 2 2020.
The limited and temporary waiver will provide countries with the policy space necessary to collaborate in manufacturing, scaling up and supplying Covid-19 medical products, which are currently in short supply.
Recourse to waivers is provided for in the World Trade Organisation (WTO) legal framework under exceptional circumstances, such as the current global pandemic, and forms part of the WTO legal toolbox.
The Department of Trade and Industry said that the Trips Waiver is one critical element in the overall toolbox to further boost supplies of vaccines in the shortest possible time.
“It can enable utilisation of unused manufacturing capacity across the world and speed up expansion of new production facilities.”
Meanwhile, more positive news has surfaced in the fight against the Covid19 pandemic after preliminary trial results showed the Novavax Covid19 vaccine efficacy against the South African variant, the B.1.351.
The phase 2b clinical trial results conducted by the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) Vaccines & Infectious Diseases Analytics (Vida) Research Unit have been published by the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), based on the findings.
The variant was first identified in South Africa in mid-November last year. Shabir Madhi, co-author of the study and Wits Vida director, led the Novavax Covid-19 vaccine trial in South Africa, one of two vaccine trials conducted in the country led by Madhi. The Oxford-AstraZeneca trials were also led by Madhi and Vida.
“An efficacy of 50% is sufficient to meet the World Health Organisation criteria for regulatory approval of the vaccine,” said Madhi.
The vaccine, also known as NVXCoV2373, is produced by US-based biotechnology company Novavax, Inc.
The Novavax vaccine showed an overall efficacy of 49% in the initial analysis, published in NEJM, and 49% in the subsequent complete unpublished analysis. In adults without HIV, the Novavax vaccine showed an efficacy of 60% in the initial analysis, and 55% in the subsequent complete analysis. In the initial analysis, cases were predominantly mild-to-moderate and due to the more dominant B.1.351 variant in South Africa.
“The data makes a compelling case for use of the Novavax Covid-19 vaccine in settings where the B.1.351 variant dominates – which is most of southern Africa – to reduce the risk of mild disease and also to maximise the opportunity for protection against severe Covid,” said Madhi. “Further work is required for Novavax and all other Covid-19 vaccines, particularly in people living with HIV.”