By Murad Sezer and Peter Graff
ISTANBUL / LONDON (China) steals a march on Western drug producers during the COVID-19 vaccine race in developing countries, with Indonesia and Turkey launching major Chinese-campaign this week. member Hungary enrolls.
Scientists in some Western countries say China was too slow to publish test data. Public reports so far about how well its vaccines were inconsistent, attributing the Chinese enterprises to variations in methodology.
Yet countries with hundreds of millions of people desperate for a vaccine think China’s shots are good enough.
As Western drugmakers struggle to meet demand at home, Beijing has shipped millions of doses worldwide from CoronaVac, made by Sinovac Biotech, and also markets a separate vaccine made by another company, Sinopharm.
Exports come even as China fights its own flare-up of infections, which has brought more than 28 million people to the brink. China administered 10 million vaccine doses at home.
Although some studies on the Sinovac survey have lower effectiveness rates than some Western products, the countries that buy it say that it seems effective in preventing the most serious, deadly form of COVID-19.
Most importantly, it is also easy to administer, allowing large-scale programs to be launched quickly to save lives and prevent health systems from being overwhelmed.
Turkey launched its program with the Sinovac shot on Thursday and said in the late afternoon that it had already vaccinated more than 200,000 people – within a few hours more than France had managed in three weeks. Health workers went first.
“We spent about ten months in white overalls supporting people while struggling for life. Health workers know very well that this situation cannot be taken lightly and that the vaccine is needed,” said Surgeon General Nurettin Yiyit.
Hungary, which has complained about the “scandalous” slow introduction of vaccines bought by the European Union on behalf of its 27 member states, reached an agreement on Thursday to buy the Synopharm vaccine. If approved, it will become the first EU country to authorize a Chinese vaccine.
‘BREAK THE CHAIN’
Although all countries are likely to need more than one type of vaccine to meet demand, China has been fast from the point of view in delivery doses to countries at the back of the queue for providing Western shots.
Many developing countries may still have months to wait for their first vaccinations.
Meanwhile, Turkey already has 3 million doses of the Sinovac vaccine in its stock, and Brazil has 6 million doses. Brazil is expected to inject with them next week.
Indonesia’s president, Joko Widodo, was the first to receive the Sinovac vaccine to launch one of the largest vaccine programs in the world on Wednesday. It is expected that by the end of March there will be 30 million doses of Sinovac out of an order of more than 122 million in 2022.
“Vaccination is important to break the chain of COVID-19 transmission and give us protection and security to every Indonesian and help accelerate economic recovery,” the president said.
The Western company that has so far competed directly with Sinovac in developing countries is AstraZeneca, whose vaccine, developed with the University of Oxford, is also cheap and easy to deliver.
It will be the basis of the largest vaccination program of all, which India is expected to launch on Saturday. More than 5 million doses were flown across the country this week in preparation.
The government of India says it will pay less than $ 3 per dose for the first 100 million shots, manufactured under license by the Indian Serum Institute.
Russia will launch a new, enlarged version of its vaccination program next week using its own Sputnik V shot, which it also markets heavily in developing countries. It has gained approval in Argentina, Belarus and Serbia, although so far it has been slow to produce large-scale doses for export.
Kirill Dmitriev, head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund backing the vaccine, told Reuters NEXT conference that Russia will seek EU approval for the vaccine next month, expecting 25% of global market share. win.
Reports by Murad Sezer, Mehmet Emin Caliskan and Ali Kucukgocmen in Istanbul, Tuvan Gumrukcu in Ankara, Gabriel Stargardter and Ricardo Brito in Rio de Janeiro, Stanley Widianto in Jakarta, Aditi Shah and Sachin Ravikumar in India, Andrew Osborn and Polina Ivanova in Moscow , Krisztina Than and Anita Komuves in Budapest; edited by Josephine Mason and Andrew Cawthorne)