Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
World Leaders Stress Need For Vaccine To Be Widely Available To All Countries
The Washington Post: The Biggest Challenge For A Coronavirus Vaccine Could Be Getting Countries To Share
Global leaders came together Thursday to raise at least $2 billion toward providing a future vaccine for the novel coronavirus to people throughout the world — a precarious diplomatic endeavor and one of the biggest unresolved problems in using a vaccine to combat the pandemic. The virtual summit was convened by a public-private partnership called Gavi, which aims to increase vaccination rates in lower-income countries. (Wan and Johnson, 6/4)
Reuters: Vaccines Group Raises $8.8 Billion For Immunisation Plans For Poor Countries
The GAVI vaccines alliance said on Thursday it had raised $8.8 billion from international donor governments, companies and philanthropic foundations to fund its immunisation programmes through to 2025. (Kelland, 6/4)
The Associated Press: UK Vaccine Summit Calls For Freely Available Virus Vaccine
A vaccine summit has raised billions of dollars to immunize children in developing countries as experts wrestled with how any potential vaccine against the coronavirus might be distributed globally — and fairly. The United Nations and the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement have urged that “a people’s vaccine” be developed for COVID-19 that would be freely available to everyone, calling it a “moral imperative.” (Cheng and Neergaard, 6/5)
Stat: Inovio Sues Vaccine Manufacturer Amid Race To Develop Covid-19 Vaccine
As the race to develop a Covid-19 vaccine accelerates, Inovio Pharmaceuticals (INO) filed a lawsuit claiming it is being held “hostage” by its long-standing contract manufacturer, which is refusing to provide crucial data needed to scale up vaccine production. In arguing its case, Inovio maintained that a supply agreement requires VGXI to transfer technology know-how to other contract manufacturers if it declines to make a vaccine for Inovio. And recently, VGXI told Inovio that it cannot manufacture further batches of its experimental Covid-19 vaccine this year because it lacks manufacturing capacity, according to the lawsuit, filed in a Pennsylvania state court. (Silverman, 6/4)
Reuters: AstraZeneca Targets Two Billion Doses, Poor Countries With COVID Vaccine Deals
British drugmaker AstraZeneca has doubled manufacturing capacity for its potential coronavirus vaccine to 2 billion doses in two deals involving Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates that guarantee early supply to lower income countries. The deals with epidemic response group CEPI and vaccine alliance GAVI are backed by the World Health Organisation and aim to quell concerns that the company was committing all initial supplies of the vaccine to the developed world. (6/4)
The Wall Street Journal: AstraZeneca Signs More Coronavirus Vaccine Supply Deals
The distribution deals are the latest signed by a drugmaker working on a coronavirus vaccine. The companies have been straddling competing demands from national leaders who want to secure supplies for their own populations and from those who want to set up global allocation systems, including programs to vaccinate health-care workers around the world before the general population. In the first agreement, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, an Oslo-based nonprofit that has funded several coronavirus vaccine projects this year, said it is setting up a global development and distribution system for coronavirus vaccines with another nonprofit. (Loftus and Walker, 6/4)
Stat: AstraZeneca Lays Out Plans To Produce 2 Billion Doses Of Covid-19 Vaccine
“We believe we can get the vaccine to hundreds of millions of people around the world, importantly including those in the countries with the lowest income,” Pascal Soriot, AstraZeneca’s CEO, told a group of reporters on a webcast. “So our goal is really to not leave anybody behind.” (Herper, 6/4)
Reuters: Novavax Gets U.S. Defense Funding For Its COVID-19 Vaccine
Novavax Inc said on Thursday the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) will give the late-stage biotech company up to $60 million to fund the manufacturing of its experimental COVID-19 vaccine. The U.S.-based company said the deal includes the delivery of 10 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine - NVX‑CoV2373 - to the DoD this year. (6/4)
Reuters: Tyson The Alpaca Takes Heavyweight Role In Search For Coronavirus Vaccine
Scientists in Sweden are hoping an alpaca named Tyson can help deliver a knockout blow in the fight to develop a treatment or vaccine against the novel coronavirus that has killed nearly 400,000 people worldwide. After immunizing Tyson, a 12 year-old alpaca in Germany, with virus proteins, the team at the Karolinska Institute have isolated tiny antibodies - known as nanobodies - from his blood that bind to the same part of the virus as human antibodies and could block the infection. (6/4)
ABC News: In Coronavirus Vaccine Race, Past Missteps Serve As Cautionary Tales
Polio in the first half of the 1950s crippled or killed tens of thousands of children each year, prompting widespread fear of a disease cloaked in mystery. So when Jonas Salk rolled out his vaccine in 1955, it was justifiably regarded as a major breakthrough not only in science, but in the psyche of the country. The excitement of Salk’s achievement, however, was partially undercut by a tragic, lesser-known chapter in the vaccine’s history, when a manufacturer of the vaccine inadvertently distributed a botched batch of the serum, leading to deaths and paralysis in dozens of children. (Bruggeman, 6/5)
