Boost for Kenya's plan to access Covid-19 vaccine

 

Kenya's hopes of getting a Covid-19 vaccine got a boost after 64 high-income economies joined the Covax Facility, a global initiative to supply the vaccine to people in developing countries. 

The 64 economies include the European Commission, which will procure doses on behalf of 27 EU member states, plus Norway and Iceland.

The 64 members of the facility will be joined by 92 low- and middle-income economies, including Kenya, eligible for support for the procurement of vaccines through the Gavi Covax Advance Market Commitment — a financing instrument aimed at supporting the procurement of vaccines for the countries.

This means that 156 economies, representing roughly 64 per cent of the global population, are now either committed to or eligible for the Covax Facility, with more to follow.

Gavi said in a statement the Covax Facility will now start signing formal agreements with vaccine manufacturers and developers, which are partners in the Covax effort, to secure the doses needed to end the acute phase of the pandemic by the end of 2021.

“Covax is now in business: governments from every continent have chosen to work together, not only to secure vaccines for their own populations, but also to help ensure that vaccines are available to the most vulnerable everywhere,” said Dr Seth Berkley, CEO of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, which is coordinating the Covax Facility.

The Covax Facility is part of the vaccines pillar of the Access to Covid-19 Tools Accelerator, which is co-led by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), Gavi, and the World Health Organization (WHO).

“Covid-19 is an unprecedented global crisis that demands an unprecedented global response,” said WHO Director-General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

“Vaccine nationalism will only perpetuate the disease and prolong the global recovery. Working together through the Covax Facility is not charity, it’s in every country’s own best interests to control the pandemic and accelerate the global economic recovery.”

The commitment of fully self-financing economies will now unlock vital funding and the security of demand needed to scale up manufacturing and secure the doses needed for the Facility.

Cepi is leading Covax vaccine research and development work, which aims to develop at least three safe and effective vaccines that can be made available to economies participating in the Covax Facility.

Nine candidate vaccines are currently being supported by Cepi; eight of which are currently in clinical trials.

The Gavi Covax AMC has raised around US$ 700 million (about Sh70 billion) from sovereign donors, philanthropists and the private sector, against an initial target of US$ 2 billion (about Sh200 billion) in seed funding needed by the end of 2020.