[ad_1]
PARIS: France said Thursday (May 14) that nations of the world would have equal access to any new coronavirus vaccine developed by pharmaceutical giant Sanofi, a day after the CEO suggested that Americans would likely be the first to the row.
United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in an interview that he expected any developed vaccine to be shared worldwide.
Ad
“I hope that we all collectively find a way to produce this in high volume to get it worldwide and make sure that all citizens who need access to a vaccine can get it as quickly as possible,” said the top US diplomat. USA Kan 11 News from Israel during a trip there.
READ: French fury after Sanofi says America will receive COVID-19 vaccine first
Scientists are rushing to find treatments and vaccines for a disease that has killed nearly 300,000 people worldwide, including more than 84,000 in the United States.
Even as nations grapple with the ongoing pandemic, experts are weighing the impact any potential vaccine may have on a disease that has already exposed the world’s inequalities and power struggles.
Ad
“A COVID-19 vaccine should be a public good for the world,” French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said Thursday, adding that “equal access for all” was “non-negotiable.”
He was speaking after Sanofi CEO Paul Hudson told Bloomberg News on Wednesday: “The United States government is entitled to the largest advance order because it has invested in taking the risk.”
He apologized Thursday and said it was vital that any coronavirus vaccine reach all regions.
Hudson will meet with French President Emmanuel Macron next week. Macron was upset with Hudson’s previous comments, according to an Elysee official.
READ: France reports 351 more coronavirus deaths
Hudson has criticized Europe’s ability to develop and manufacture a vaccine for months. He has asked for a European version of the US agency that is helping Sanofi develop his vaccine.
World leaders in April pledged to accelerate their work on COVID-19, the disease caused by the new highly contagious coronavirus, but the United States did not participate.
The United States also ignored a promise last week by world leaders and organizations to spend $ 8 billion to manufacture and distribute a possible vaccine and treatments.
More than 90 vaccines are currently being developed worldwide, with eight in the clinical trial phase. But experts say the process can take years and may not happen at all.
There is still no vaccine against HIV, which emerged in the early 1980s, or SARS, a coronavirus that affected Asia in 2002.
United States President Donald Trump reiterated Thursday that he believed there would be a vaccine by the end of the year, in contrast to the United States’ leading infectious disease expert, and said he was already working on plans to distribute it.
“I think we will have a vaccine by the end of the year and I think the distribution will take place almost simultaneously because we have trained the military,” he told reporters at the White House, adding that more details were expected. on Friday.
He also said there would be a US announcement about the World Health Organization next week, but gave no other details. The World Health Assembly, the decision-making body of the WHO, meets on May 18 and 19.
READ: The EU insists that the COVID-19 vaccine be available to all
Trump, who faces reelection in November after winning in 2016 on a “United States First” agenda, has urged a swift reopening of the United States economy despite the lack of approved treatment, vaccination or widespread testing.
Anthony Fauci, who heads the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said Tuesday that there will likely be no vaccine available for the fall, but that he was cautiously optimistic that there would eventually be one.
“It is definitely not a remote possibility,” Fauci told a panel of the US Senate. And added that a vaccine was “more likely than not … because this is a virus that induces an immune response and people recover.”
‘A FAIR AND EQUITABLE PLAN’
According to Reuters reports, more than 4.39 million people have been infected worldwide and 296,847 have died. The United States has the highest number of deaths at 84,256.
Sanofi is working on two vaccine projects, one with British rival GlaxoSmithKline which has received financial support from the Advanced Biomedical Research and Development Authority (BARDA) of the US Department of Health. USA And another with the American company Translate Bio that will use different technology.
An American whistleblower who was removed last month as BARDA director told the United States House of Representatives on Thursday that he was concerned about the preparation of the American coronavirus, including vaccination efforts.
“There is no company that can produce enough for our country or for the world. It will be a limited supply. We need to have a strategy and a plan now to make sure that we can not only fill that vaccine, make it, distribute it, but administer on a fair and equitable plan, “said Richard Bright.
The WHO is leading the global initiative to develop a vaccine, and its spokesperson, Margaret Harris, said at a briefing in Geneva that while some treatments in very early studies appear to help, “we have nothing that can kill or stop the virus.”
The European Medicines Agency (EMA), which approves medicines for the European Union, said Thursday that a vaccine could be approved in about a year in an “optimistic” scenario.
“For vaccines, since development must start from scratch … we could look optimistic from one year from now, in early 2021,” said EMA chief vaccine officer Marco Cavaleri in Amsterdam. .
READ: Sanofi will accelerate access to the European vaccine COVID-19
But the EU, some of whose members have been among those most affected by the pandemic, fears it may not have enough supplies, especially if a vaccine was developed in the United States or China. Its executive branch, the European Commission, is using a $ 2.6 billion emergency fund to increase the capacity of pharmaceutical laboratories.
Trump said Thursday that he had signed an executive order to expand national production of certain strategic resources relevant to the outbreak in the United States, but gave no other details.
CHECK THIS: Our comprehensive coverage of the coronavirus outbreak and its developments
Download our app or subscribe to our Telegram channel for the latest updates on the coronavirus outbreak: https://cna.asia/telegram
