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Vaccines are generally developed in 10 years. Scientists now have less than one available. PHOTO: Reuters
The market covers the whole world and all the big companies will participate in it.
Whoever is the first to produce and distribute a COVID-19 vaccine will become the savior of humanity and gain enormous geopolitical influence. It is no accident that experts claim that the race between countries to be first with the vaccine is similar to the space race between Cold War rivals the United States and Russia.
Just the day before, the news emerged that one of the vaccines in the final phase of testing, that of the American pharmaceutical company Pfizer and the German biotechnology company Bayontek, had shown an effectiveness of 90%. The media announced that it was a historic event that “could change the rules of the game” and lead to a return to normal life. Vaccine data is still in an intermediate stage and final data is expected in December. but nevertheless
stock exchanges around the world
reacted with
a sharp increase
Even competitors from the University of Oxford, who along with Astra Zeneca are also in the final of their vaccine, congratulated their teammates on the success.
Indicative of the politicization of vaccines is the fact that, despite the breakthrough, most reactions to the message were of the type: Did it come by chance at this point, shortly after the end of the US presidential election?
President Donald Trump, overwhelmed by criticism for his administration’s inability to cope with the pandemic, relied heavily on the vaccine as a trump card in the election campaign. Despite pressure on US investigation teams to hurry as much as possible, they did not give up and told him they had their own security-driven agenda. However, immediately after Monday’s news, Trump accused Pfizer and the US Food and Drug Administration of deliberately withholding the ad for five days to thwart his “vaccine victory” in the election. “If Joe Biden were president, he wouldn’t have the vaccine for four years. The bureaucracy would ruin millions of lives,” Trump wrote on Twitter. Pfizer, for its part, rejected the accusations that it had received state aid and said it had not accepted funds from anyone.
The vaccine war is not just internal to the United States, but largely geopolitical. The competition is not even that cheap, because this time the market covers practically the whole world, so a part will probably fall on all the big companies. According to a recent report by Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse, the COVID vaccine profits of major pharmaceutical companies in the United States, Europe and other developed countries will reach between $ 10 billion and $ 25 billion a year.
The European Commission has already expressed its willingness to conclude an agreement with Pfizer for 200 million doses (with the possibility of acquiring another 100 million), and the United States has a contract with the British-Swedish Astra Zeneca for 300 million doses of co- developed. Oxford University Vaccine. The UK has agreed to supply 340 million doses from 5 different manufacturers. The quantities ordered exceed the population, because in most cases the vaccines are administered in 2 doses for each patient.
But despite the fair play between scientific teams on both sides of the ocean, mutual agreements in the billions, and guaranteed giant profits from “Big Pharma” (This is what the conspirators call the pharmaceutical giants). competition between companies goes behind the scenes. In the United States, for example, the plight of Astra Zeneca, which was forced to suspend trials of its vaccine in the United States in September due to side effects in a British volunteer, was greatly inflated. Then a Brazilian volunteer died, although it turned out that he was in the placebo control group. Due to these objective delays, the Oxford vaccine is overdue and its efficacy will be clear by the end of the year.
The British press highlights that the RNA vaccine from “Pfizer”, which
used
genetic code
instead of part of
the virus itself,
can be produced significantly faster than the Astra Zeneca vector vaccine, but its application will be delayed due to the need for special equipment for storage at minus 70 degrees, which requires the presence of special refrigerators (see chart on page 3). Bayontek announced that his goal now is to find out if the vaccine can survive more than 5 days at a temperature of 4 degrees in a common refrigerator. Pfizer is developing a special case the size of a suitcase to carry the vaccine. However, according to the Times, it can be opened just before the injection and only twice a day, making giving the vaccine to patients very difficult and expensive.
More than 190 vaccines are currently being developed around the world. 10 of them are in the final decisive phase of testing. 4 of the definitive duty vaccines are being developed in China. The Sputnik V vaccine at Russia’s Gamalei Center was personally announced by President Putin as the first registered in the world. The West opposed it on a united front. The main argument was that it had been approved before passing the third stage of the tests. Researchers in western countries continued to question the drug even after a positive article about it appeared in the medical Bible, The Lancet, because the antibody levels in all the volunteers turned out to be very similar. In this case, the confrontation between the United States and Europe, on the one hand, and Russia and China, on the other, has spread to the field of vaccines.
Indicative in this respect is the case of Hungary, which is forever divided by the EU. He did it again, announcing that he would obtain the Russian vaccine to study and possibly license it in the country. The European Commission’s response is immediate: Budapest will only be able to buy the vaccine if it is licensed in the EU.
Just an hour after Pfizer announced the news of its breakthrough, Russia also declared that Sputnik was 90% effective, the Daily Mail reported. The Moscow Ministry of Health announced this based on data obtained from the mass vaccination of the population. So far, the results of the third phase of the Sputnik V tests have not been announced.
At least for now, it is not a Chinese vaccine in the United States and Europe. Donald Trump continues to call the cause of the infection the “Chinese virus,” and Western mistrust of China has deepened due to suspicions that at the start of the pandemic, Beijing withheld the truth about the devastating disaster from the world.
Brazil was ready to use the Chinese vaccine from the Shinovac company after conducting tests in the country, but a few days ago it announced that they are being suspended due to the manifestation of serious side effects in one of the volunteers.
At the same time, the Chinese vaccine is an integral part of diplomacy. Beijing continues to speak about how accessible it will be to developing countries and how it will become a global public good. China has already promised African countries, where it has been stepping up its economic and military presence for years, to be the first to receive the vaccine for free.
Who will pioneer the coronavirus vaccine is a matter of doubt. And the answer will determine the image and geopolitical influence of countries in the coming years.
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