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With the agreement signed last week, Switzerland has become one of the first countries to reach an agreement with Moderna. But he’s not signing bilateral agreements with manufacturers. The United States, the United Kingdom, Brazil and Japan are among those who have already spent cash to pre-order promising vaccine candidates.
As the vaccine race intensifies, the Modern agreement has sparked a sigh of relief for many in Switzerland who see it as a mandatory measure for the Swiss population.
However, critics argue that this is a face bet that ultimately undermines global efforts to ensure a fair distribution of Covid-19 vaccines, whatever Switzerland has said it supports.
“This agreement shows that the Swiss do not believe that a comprehensive agreement will be reached to distribute vaccines,” said Patrick Durisch, who heads the fitness policy at the Swiss NGO Public Eye.
One such major global effort is the Covid-19 Global Access Mechanism (COVAX). Switzerland is a major donor and is now co-chair of global collaboration introduced through the World Health Organization to drive progression and equitable access to a vaccine. It aims to acquire two billion doses to vaccinate 20% of the population of the participating countries by the end of 2021.
In ruling the Modern agreement, the Swiss government said it still supports multilateral projects such as COVAX for the equitable distribution of a vaccine in the long term.
Durisch argues that the calculations are not loaded. The Economist estimates that governments around the world have made long-term purchases of 4 billion doses of Covid-19 vaccines for delivery until the end of next year. This includes the AGREEMENTS of the governments of the United States and Britain with AstraZeneca for 400 million and one hundred million doses respectively. On Tuesday, Trump’s management also signed a hundred-million-a-fee deal with Modern.
However, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) estimates that there is only sufficient global production capacity to produce two to 4 billion doses by the end of 2021. If countries continue to signal individual agreements, there will only be enough for the poorest. Countries.
So far, AstraZeneca and Novovax have reserved doses for COVAX in addition to their bilateral agreements.
But what’s the alternative? Experts expect the call to exceed the source for some time.
“Shouldn’t we do anything and get a vaccine?” Health Minister Alain Berset asked in the German newspaper Neue Zeitung this weekend.
But this little guarantee for public aptitude advocates like Durisch.
“It just doesn’t make sense from a public fitness point of view to vaccinate everyone in Switzerland and leave fitness staff in Africa, for example, unvaccinated,” he told swissinfo.ch. “We want teams of prior threats, such as physical care personnel, to get the first vaccines anywhere.”
The deal is also an expensive bet. If successful, the 4.5 million doses of vaccine are expected to vaccinate 2.25 million people, or about a quarter of the Swiss population. Earlier this year, the Swiss government earmarked three hundred million vaccine francs and intends to buy enough to vaccinate 60% of the population.
Although the main points are scarce, the German news space, according to Tages-Anzeiger, estimates that the Swiss government paid some one hundred million Swiss francs ($110 million) to Moderna for the value of the biotechnology company of $32 to $37 according to the dose.
The Swiss Federal Office of Public Health told swissinfo.ch that it may not provide the main points of the terms of the contract. As a general rule, in an early procurement agreement like this, a government will pay an initial amount to fund the next progression of a vaccine in exchange for ensuring that a certain amount of production is reserved for it. If they fail, they don’t get their cash back.
According to WHO, the Moderna vaccine is one of the few Phase 3 clinical trial projects in more than 160 applicants worldwide. Vaccines in final trials have a 20% chance of failure. Although it has about 20 drugs and vaccines under development, the 10-year-old has never had a product to succeed in the advertising stage.
“Resolution is quick and premature. Switzerland is trapped in the search for vaccines and exaggerations,” Durisch said. “They’re worried that if we don’t do it now, there’ll be nothing left.”
Ten years ago, governments signed similar agreements for a swine flu vaccine and still had to locate tactics to donate or dispose of it when the epidemic subsided.
The federal fitness administration has indicated that it is in talks with other manufacturers. As an imaginable signal of additional agreements to come, the government on Tuesday announced an agreement with Swiss Biotechnology Molecular Partners to access 200,000 doses of its upcoming Mono-DARPin remedy opposed to Covid-19.
Modern has also received complaints on several fronts. The value set for the vaccine is the estimated maximum number of applicants and has also been heavily subsidized. The U.S. government paid $955 million for Moderna’s candidate vaccine.
The CEO also publicly stated that his goal was to make a profit, unlike Pfizer and Astra Zeneca, who said they would produce vaccines of no benefit to them. The STAT fitness industry site also reported deficiencies in the disclosure of Covid-19 vaccine progression prices, which is a requirement of U.S. federal law.
“Governments issue blank checks without price-like situations or transparency,” Durisch said.
Michael Altorfer, who runs the Swiss Biotechnology Association, argues that it is up to a company to generate a profit on its investment. “Otherwise, investors will be informed of the lesson and abandon investments in this area,” he said.
Large pharmaceutical corporations have abandoned spaces such as studies and vaccine progression and new antibiotics because they make a profit when costs are low.
He points out that, as with many biotech start-ups, personal investors have borne dangers in the early stages of modern’s mND technology progression, giving the company an initial advantage in the Covid-19 vaccine race.
Switzerland also has its own interest in the good luck of Moderna. He signed an agreement with Lonza for the manufacture of pharmaceutical active ingredients (IPA) for the Modern Vaccine in Lonza’s operations in the canton of Valais.
Swiss media have also reported that Moderna appears to be moving to Switzerland. The company reportedly signed the register of a local subsidiary of the Swiss industry at the end of June. On Tuesday, the corporation appointed Nicolas Chornet to lead European operations in Basel.
This makes Switzerland one of the few countries in the enviable position of having vaccine production on its soil and the monetary means of acquiring them. Suerie Moon, co-director of the Global Health Centre at the Graduate Institute in Geneva, says the Swiss government is using its position to filter Lonza to comply with WHO rules on allocation when generating vaccines.
“The government itself can also adopt a more built-in technique by purchasing one giant volume at once, some for Swiss use and the rest for other countries, the COVAX facility that has been heavily supported through Switzerland,” Moon said.