Amid talk of vaccine nationalism, news of countries hoarding Covid-19 medication, and vaccine hesitancy, many fail to see the potential good news. Currently, there are 165 viable vaccine candidates around the world, 26 of them are either in the process of or about to start human trials.
One of the manufacturers, French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi, has just struck a deal with the European Commission: According to the agreement, the EU has reserved 300 million doses of a possible vaccine. The vaccine journey could take us to one of several destinations, which include: multiple vaccines being successful in the end, only one working or none of them could work.
EU says it struck deal with Sanofi for 300 million doses of potential COVID-19 vaccine
Considering vaccine development usually takes more than 10 years and that the world is trying to squeeze those ten years into 12-18 months, there are a lot of ethical, scientific and logistical aspects at play.
Assuming that at least one vaccine is approved for the market, hundreds of millions, maybe billions of doses, need to be produced according to quality standards. They have to be distributed and priced fairly — how would Europe deal with that? What would the next steps be? And how much would it cost the average citizen to get vaccinated? In theory, the answers are simple, yet vague. Once a vaccine is approved and if the developer has made a deal with the EU beforehand, member states can put in their order for the vaccine.
But their access will be determined according to a population-based key. The European Commission told Euronews that it couldn’t say what exactly that key looks like and who determined its components. However, a spokesperson said all member states were involved in the decision-making process. Once a member state has access to the vaccine, it will then individually decide the price and the prioritisation of the distribution among its citizens. But before any of that can happen, the following questions need answering.
The EU’s strategy uses the sheer number of member states for leverage in negotiations with vaccine-developing companies, but it also manages to pool money that can go into the development and production of a vaccine. Mostly, however, the union minimises the financial risk and the health risk for individual member states. At the end of the day, it’s the EU’s way of making sure member states won’t draw the short straw once a vaccine is successful, considering the entire world will be vying for it.
Source: Euronews
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