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A proposed intellectual property waiver that covers COVID-19 vaccines is stuck at the World Trade Organization, although Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is pushing countries to reach an agreement by the end of February.
But if that doesn’t pan out, scientists at the Texas Children's Hospital Center for Vaccine Development are offering their COVID-19 vaccine without a patent — a first in the ongoing pandemic.
• The vaccine, which received emergency use authorization in India in December, is produced with a yeast fermentation technology — the same kind used for the recombinant hepatitis B vaccine.
• India’s Biological E — the first company to license the vaccine, under the name Corbevax — has already started production, manufacturing around 250 million doses. The company says the vaccine is “safe” and “well tolerated” based on phase 3 clinical trials, although no details have yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal.
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• Discussions are already ongoing with WHO for pre-qualification and emergency use listing, according to Peter Hotez, one of the vaccine’s developers. What’s more, companies working in three other countries have already received the vaccine technology: Biofarma in Indonesia, Incepta Pharmaceuticals in Bangladesh, and ImmunityBio in Botswana. Anybody who wishes to reproduce the vaccine can also do so, as the developers published their work online.
• The decision to go patent-free runs counter to the approach that has characterized much of the pandemic: governments investing billions in pharmaceutical companies that have pushed against proposals to waive intellectual property rights for their vaccines. Hotez says the funding for developing the new vaccine mainly came from smaller philanthropies, most of which are based in Texas. But his team needs money too, he says, “to pay our scientists like everyone else.”
Read: How a Texas team created the first 'open-source' COVID-19 shot
Uncertain future
Billionaire Bill Gates was loudly critical of proposals to waive intellectual property rights for vaccines, though the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation eventually reversed course. Now the announcement of four new trustees to the foundation board has raised questions about new influences — and none more than Zimbabwean billionaire philanthropist Strive Masiyiwa, who’s been instrumental in the fight to get more vaccines to Africa and vocal about support for global vaccine equity. But it’s still unclear how much power the four newcomers will have when measured against Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates, as the foundation navigates a post-divorce future.
Deep dive: What do the changes in the Gates Foundation governance mean? [PRO]
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A pandemic of plastics
When COVID-19 began, one scandal revolved around hospitals’ inability to obtain personal protective equipment. Now the question is how to get rid of it, with experts warning of a waste crisis from single-use masks, gloves, test kits, and more. Devex covered the problems of disposing of millions of syringes during vaccination drives last year. But in the scramble to deliver PPE and inoculations around the world, waste management took a backseat.
A new WHO report focuses directly on this problem. From March 2020 to November 2021, the U.N. shipped a total of 1.5 billion units of single-use PPE to fight COVID-19, weighing 87,000 metric tons. And that’s only a small fraction of all PPE purchased globally.
WHO is recommending some practical measures to reduce the waste, including the use of sustainable packaging and recyclable materials, as well as the “rational” use of items such as gloves.
Read: WHO reveals huge problem of COVID-19 waste
22 in ‘22
Devex has put together a list of organizations to watch in 2022, with analysis from Editor-in-Chief Raj Kumar. It includes the African Medicines Agency, Global Fund, and PEPFAR.
Check out the full list, and read about why Raj thinks you, too, should pay these organizations attention.
+ Join us on Feb. 15 for Prescription for Progress, our signature event focused on global health technology and innovation. We’re excited to welcome Dr. Soumya Swaminathan, chief scientist at WHO, and Vinod Khosla, founder of Khosla Ventures, to the virtual stage. They join a packed lineup of key stakeholders. Save your spot.
Health is wealth
If there’s one “insurance policy” that African governments should be paying attention to, it’s ensuring their populations are healthy enough to develop solutions to future risks, such as climate change’s impact on food security, says Vera Songwe, executive secretary at the U.N. Economic Commission for Africa.
An estimated 1 in 5 people on the continent — or 282 million in total — are undernourished, and 93 million people across 36 African countries are “suffering extreme levels of hunger,” according to Oxfam. Inflation on the continent reached record levels last year, and the U.N. estimates that food prices in sub-Saharan Africa are now 30-40% higher than the rest of the world when gross domestic product is taken into account.
Low-income economies lose as much as 16% of GDP annually due to malnutrition, but every dollar invested in nutrition yields $16 in returns for health and productivity.
Read: UN's Vera Songwe calls on African leaders to build resilience
The bare minimum
“As doctors, our job is to care for people and heal the sick. The least we can expect is not to be killed.”
— Dr. Mo Aye, a Myanmar-born consultant physician in the U.K.Myanmar has become “one of the most dangerous places on Earth to be a health worker,” one NGO leader cautions. Since the military takeover on Feb. 1, 2021, at least 31 health workers have been killed in the country, and at least 284 have been arrested, according to Physicians for Human Rights.
Read: The ‘systematic persecution of health workers’ in Myanmar
One big number
10.1 billion
—That’s how many COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered globally, but the gap between countries remains significant. While over 180 doses were administered per 100 people in high-income countries as of Saturday that figure was only 14 per 100 in low-income countries, according to Our World in Data.
What we’re reading
Previously free of COVID-19, Tonga has now instituted a lockdown after several people tested positive. [BBC]
The U.S. FDA’s panel of vaccine experts will meet Feb. 15 as Pfizer seeks authorization to administer its COVID-19 vaccine to children under 5. [Politico]
WHO is again nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. [Reuters]
About the authors
Amruta Byatnalamrutabyatnal
Amruta Byatnal is a Senior Editor at Devex where she edits coverage on global development, humanitarian crises and international aid. She writes Devex CheckUp, a weekly newsletter on the latest developments in global health. Previously, she worked for News Deeply in the United States, and The Hindu in India. She is a graduate of Cornell University where she studied international development. She is currently based in New Delhi.
Jenny Lei Ravelo@JennyLeiRavelo
Jenny Lei Ravelo is a Devex Senior Reporter based in Manila. She covers global health, with a particular focus on the World Health Organization, and other development and humanitarian aid trends in Asia Pacific. Prior to Devex, she wrote for ABS-CBN, one of the largest broadcasting networks in the Philippines, and was a copy editor for various international scientific journals. She received her journalism degree from the University of Santo Tomas.
