Pfizer and The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria signed an agreement Thursday to procure up to 6 million treatment courses of Paxlovid, the oral COVID-19 antiviral drug.
The treatment will be made available to 132 low- and middle-income countries eligible for Global Fund grants, many of whom have yet to access the drug despite a strong World Health Organization recommendation in April for the drug to be given to patients who have mild to moderate COVID-19, but are at highest risk of hospitalization.
Pfizer expects supply of Paxlovid will be made within the year based on country demand and pending regulatory authorization or approval in countries.
The agreement takes place four months after the Global Fund signed a letter of intent with Pfizer back in May to procure up to 6 million courses of the oral treatment.
It’s unclear if other organizations part of the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator, or ACT-A – a multistakeholder initiative launched during the pandemic to ensure equitable access to COVID-19 lifesaving tools — will continue pursuing separate negotiations with the company over the drug.
In early September, Unitaid, a co-lead of the Global Fund on the therapeutics pillar under ACT-A, told Devex that it remains in negotiations with Pfizer on Paxlovid. Among the factors prolonging the negotiations are high pricing, lack of price transparency, and Pfizer’s differentiated pricing approach, where prices are dependent on countries’ income.
But neither the pharmaceutical giant nor the Global Fund would disclose the price for Paxlovid under the agreement. Pfizer only reiterated that low- and lower-middle-income countries will pay a “not-for-profit price” for treatment courses of the drug, while upper-middle-income countries will pay according to Pfizer’s tiered pricing approach.
In recent weeks, Pfizer has also agreed to donate 100,000 treatment courses of Paxlovid to a new public-private consortium that aims to provide oral, antiviral COVID-19 treatments in 10 low- and middle-income countries.
But the company’s agreement with UNICEF in March for the procurement of up to 4 million courses of Paxlovid has not yet moved forward. Devex previously reported about the delay in implementing the agreement, as UNICEF renegotiates some of the terms of the agreement pertaining to access conditions.
About the author
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.
