Pharma groups say countries that support drug development will receive priority for successful shots
Jude Webber in Mexico City and Carolina Pulice in São Paulo OCTOBER 26 2020
Mexico has agreed to host human trials of seven Covid-19 vaccines to strengthen relations with pharmaceutical companies in case limited production capacity leads to a battle for doses. “We are saving places in the queue for the purchase of something that does not yet exist,” said Martha Delgado, a deputy foreign minister, who has led Mexico’s efforts to secure vaccines. “You cannot wait to see it before getting in line . . . there is a risk some countries will say ‘this is all for me’,” she told the Financial Times in an interview. Mexico’s willingness to host phase 3 trials reflects wider concerns among many middle- and lower-income countries that they could struggle to secure sufficient vaccine doses once a Covid-19 shot is finally approved for use. Dealmaking by the US, UK, EU, Japan and other rich nations has meant wealthy countries representing just 13 per cent of the world’s population have already bought more than half of the leading vaccine candidates’ promised doses, according to Oxfam. To keep up, countries such as Mexico have had to adopt other strategies. Latin America’s largest economy will host vaccine trials for US companies Johnson & Johnson and Novavax, China’s CanSino, Russia’s Gamaleya Institute, Germany’s CureVac, France’s Sanofi Pasteur and Italy’s ReiThera.
“Mexico has been abnormally aggressive in pursuing agreements to run trials . . . it is very much the case that Mexico is leading the pack right now,” said Jonathan Terluk, deputy director of operations at Empra, a risk consultancy, who has been studying the vaccine race. Ms Delgado said Mexico was not using the population as “guinea pigs” but acknowledged that a commitment to gain access to doses had been part of its discussions. Pharmaceutical companies say future access to vaccines is never tied to a country’s willingness to host human trials. However, some groups said that participating in the development of a vaccine would be recognised in negotiations over future supplies. “[J&J] believes that those countries and organizations that provide critical support for our vaccine research and development . . . should receive priority in consideration of the allocation of the vaccine given their enablement of global access,” the company said, in response to questions. CureVac said it would “appropriately recognise the value and importance of the contribution of the clinical trial centres.”
But Brazilian president, Jair Bolsonaro, who has often played down the risks of Covid-19, appeared recently to shift the country’s position on testing, rejecting the purchase by the health ministry of 46m doses of a shot from China’s SinoVac that was due to be trialled in São Paulo state. “Any vaccine, before being made available to the population, must be scientifically proved by the ministry of health and certified by the national sanitary agency,” he said on Wednesday. “The Brazilian people will be guinea pigs of no one.” Mexico and Brazil have been selected to test experiential vaccines in part because infection rates there have remained high. Using a seven-day average, Brazil has recorded more than 20,000 new cases a day since the start of June while Mexico has recorded more than 4,000 new cases a day since mid-June. In addition, the large numbers of people in Mexico with underlying health conditions, such as diabetes, make it possible to test trial candidates on a range of different population type. Latest coronavirus news. Mexico has already signed deals with Pfizer, AstraZeneca and CanSino for sufficient doses to inoculate 117m of its 127m people by the end of 2021, if those vaccines get approved. But phase 3 trials of other candidates will continue, the foreign minister has said, to also help to identify which shots are most effective for the Mexican population. Additional reporting by Hannah Kuchler in New York, Donato Paolo Mancini and Anna Gross in London and Henry Foy in Moscow.
