*Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Director-General of World Trade Organisation has called on COVID-19 Vaccine manufacturers to increase production, especially in emerging markets and developing countries where she dislcoses 鈥榚ach additional day the vaccine shortage continues, people will pay with their lives鈥�

Gbenga Kayode | 绿帽献妻

In line with her consistent advocacy for equity in the production and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines for mass immunisation against the damaging Coronavirus pandemic, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Director-General of World Trade Organisation (WTO) has urged virus vaccine manufacturers to take action to ramp up production in emerging markets and developing countries.

The WTO Director-General noted the essential need for the drug makers to increase production would help to combat the vaccine supply shortage that is excluding many lower-income nations from access.

Cooperation on trade, and action at the WTO, would help to accelerate vaccine scale-up, she said.

绿帽献妻 reports Dr. Okonjo-Iweala stated this March 9, 2021, in her remarks at a conference tagged, 鈥淕lobal C19 Vaccine Supply Chain and Manufacturing Summit鈥�, an event hosted by the United Kingdom (UK) think-tank Chatham House.

COVAX (the COVID-19 vaccine initiative led by the World Health Organisation, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance), together with the Developing Countries Vaccine Manufacturers Network (DCVMN), the Biotechnology Innovation Organisation (BIO), and the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations (IFPMA) sponsored the conference.

According to WTO in a report on its Web site, the WTO Chief informed the Global C19 Vaccine Supply Chain and Manufacturing Summit, that the scarcity of COVID-19 vaccine supplies had led to a situation in which around 75 countries are able to move ahead with vaccinations while 115 countries wait as people die across the world.

Not only was this morally 鈥渦nconscionable,鈥� she said, it would prolong the pandemic and cause economic harm to all countries.

Okonjo-Iweala suggested that instead of restricting exports and bidding up prices, 鈥渋t is in all of our self-interest to cooperate in dealing with this problem of the global commons.鈥�

Yet, she saw cause for hope in the first vaccine deliveries to developing countries, including Ghana, South Africa and Nigeria among others on the African continent, through the COVAX facility, the global mechanism for procuring and equitably distributing COVID-19 vaccines to countries.

Nevertheless, production and delivery volumes have remained too low, according to WTO.

鈥淲e have to scale up and scale out COVID-19 vaccine production, particularly in emerging markets and developing countries.

鈥淕iven the years required to build new manufacturing facilities from scratch, increasing production in the short-term means making the most of existing manufacturing capacity 鈥� finding existing sites and turning them around,鈥� she noted.

The global trade body further observed recent experience suggests that repurposing facilities and vetting them for safety and quality can happen in six or seven months, less than half as long as previously thought.

A COVID-19 Vaccine manufacturing plant in China聽 聽Photo: Global Times

Okonjo-Iweala explained by bringing more production online around the world, vaccine manufacturers would send a signal that they are taking action, and 鈥渢hat people and governments in low- and middle-income countries can expect to get access to affordable vaccines within a reasonable timeframe.鈥�

She observed that companies in India and elsewhere were already manufacturing COVID-19 vaccines under licence, but said that more such arrangements are necessary.

It was learnt in regard to the key constraints in the vaccine production efforts by the manufacturers, discussions during the conference identified and highlighted three constraints to ramping up production.

The Director-General noted these are scarcity of raw materials, shortages of qualified and experienced personnel, and supply chain problems linked to export restrictions and prohibitions as well as excessive bureaucracy in certain economies.

The WTO’s mandate on trade facilitation, quantitative trade restrictions, and trade policy monitoring were relevant to the latter challenges in particular.

According to Okonjo-Iweala, because vaccine production relies on sourcing components and ingredients from multiple countries, trade restrictions would slow down production, and make it more expensive.

Nevertheless, she acknowledged that WTO rules do allow for export restrictions or prohibitions to be 鈥渢emporarily applied to prevent or relieve critical shortages鈥� of essential products.

But such restrictions must be notified to all members. Restrictions should be transparent, proportionate to the problem at hand, and members should provide timelines for when they will be phased out, stated the Director-General.

Okonjo-Iweala disclosed at the UK summit, that WTO monitoring indicates that 59 members and seven observers still had some pandemic-related export restrictions or licensing requirements in place at the end of February 2021, mostly for personal protective equipment (PPEs).

The summit agreed that these figures were lower than the 91 countries that had brought in such measures over the past year.

The WTO Director-General, however, stated 鈥渘ot all pandemic-related export restrictions have been notified.

Not all of them appear to be temporary. Not all of them are proportionate. We must strengthen our monitoring and reporting function.鈥�

She rather explained that her objective would be to encourage members to drop or reduce export restrictions, or set timelines for phaseout in order to help in minimising problems in the vaccine supply chain.

On trade-related bureaucracy, Okonjo-Iweala has invited COVID-19 Vaccine manufacturers to tell the WTO about the problems they are encountering in real time, 鈥渟o we can put them before our membership and find ways they can be minimised and if possible solved.鈥�

On both export restrictions and trade facilitation, Okonjo-Iweala noted that prospects for action at the WTO would improve as businesses are seen to step up efforts on vaccine production.

She equally referenced the ongoing debate at the WTO on a proposal to waive standard WTO intellectual property rules for COVID-related vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics.

She told the conference participants that 鈥渕any of the proposal鈥檚 supporters are developing and least developed countries, deeply marked by the memory of unaffordable HIV/AIDS drugs.

鈥淢any, many people died who should not have. More recently, they remember being left at the back of the queue for H1N1 vaccines as richer countries bought up available supplies, which in the end were not used.鈥�

Critics of the proposed waiver, she noted, say it could threaten investment and innovation, and other members have asked for more evidence that intellectual property protections are an inhibiting factor in vaccine scale-up.

While these 鈥渧itally important discussions are intensifying here in Geneva,鈥� she said, 鈥渢he fact is that each additional day the vaccine shortage continues, people will pay with their lives.鈥�

She argued that it was possible to 鈥渨alk and chew gum at the same time,鈥� continuing the search for solutions in the TRIPS debate, while simultaneously taking action to increase production, 鈥渆specially in emerging markets and developing countries where such possibilities exist.鈥�

Okonjo-Iweala thus expressed hope that it would be possible for manufacturers from developed and developing countries to come together with civil society groups, organisations, such as the World Health Organisation, Gavi, and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness (which together run the COVAX facility), and business associations including the International Chamber of Commerce to find ways to increase vaccine production.

鈥淲e must make sure that in the end we deliver so that the millions of people who are waiting for us with bated breath know that we are working on concrete solutions,鈥� she said.

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