A chara, – We write to express our concern regarding the letter (January 6th) from Bernard Mallee, representing the Irish Pharmaceutical Healthcare Association (IHPA). Mr Mallee asserts that enough vaccines have been produced to vaccinate the world but fails to mention that vaccine orders from rich countries have been consistently prioritised by the manufacturers, leaving orders from less well-off countries unfilled, as outlined in a Covax report just this week. He proposes the issue is one of distribution rather than supply, without acknowledging the pivotal role that pharmaceutical companies play in distribution when they cherry-pick who to sell vaccines to. He refers to the complexity of the manufacturing process yet experts with Human Rights Watch have identified over 100 sites globally capable of manufacturing Covid-19 vaccines. Existing Covid-19 manufacturers have already converted sites with even less manufacturing experience than these, such as Pfizer contracting a company specialising in freezer manufacture.
We are concerned by the poor understanding of the challenges faced by our colleagues in lower-income countries.
Mr Mallee proposes “sharing surplus doses”. In other words, relying on the benevolence of the rich.
He states that lower-income countries are unable to distribute vaccines despite the reality that distribution depends on a reliable supply model. He questions government motivations and blames “people in these countries” for vaccine hesitancy. Yet vaccine hesitancy in African countries stems from historical unethical conduct of pharmaceutical trials.
Uncertainty is further driven by the surplus donation model, as vaccine delivery is sporadic and pressured by close expiry dates.
We refute Mr Mallee’s claim that people living in low-income countries are “highly vaccine hesitant”. Vaccine hesitancy is a global problem, but as confirmed by a scientific publication in Nature, no more so on the continent of Africa than Europe or elsewhere.
Finally, the letter asserts that sharing patents would be “in the hope that someone, somewhere can turn their hand to manufacturing Covid-19 vaccines”, yet this week the recipe for a new patent-free vaccine (designed by Prof Peter Hotez and colleagues at the Texas Children’s Hospital) was being shared with experienced manufacturing sites in India, Bangladesh and Botswana.
The Seanad, the President of Ireland, Irish healthcare workers, scientists, civil organisations, business academics, patent lawyers and many of the Irish people support expansion of vaccine production through the Trips (Trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights) waiver. – Yours, etc,
Dr CIARA CONLAN,
Dr KIERAN HARKIN,
Dr CHRISTINE KELLY,
Prof SUSAN SMITH,
Doctors for Vaccine Equity,
Swords,
Co Dublin.