
Pharma's new 'Berlin Declaration' seeks to reserve vaccines, therapeutics in production for low-income countries
As Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna remain reluctant to share IP or provide tech transfer to expand the manufacture of their life-saving mRNA vaccines for Covid-19, the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers & Associations on Tuesday unveiled a new plan, building off those Covid successes, to ensure more equitable pandemic preparedness.
The plan, known as the “Berlin Declaration,” will be brought before G7 and G20 countries soon and proposes to reserve an allocation of the real-time production of drugs, vaccines and diagnostics for distribution to priority populations in lower income countries, as determined by health authorities during pandemics.
José Manuel Barroso, Gavi chair and COVAX co-chair, said regarding the proposal:
We saw effective innovation and manufacturing scaling up with this pandemic; but we also saw the challenges we had to overcome to get the vaccines to all those who needed them. The industry’s commitment to reserve part of production of vaccines and treatments at real time for vulnerable populations in low-income countries provides an opportunity to work together strategically to forge a new social contract. I hope that political leaders will do their part and engage with industry on how to make this work.
The declaration will be based on commitments and contributions from a global consortia of public, private and charitable companies, the companies said in a statement, as many in the Western world received boosters before those in lower-income countries received their first Covid-19 vaccine doses.
That lack of equity regarding early Covid-19 booster doses even led two high-profile FDA vaccine leaders to leave the agency last August.
But more recently, low-income countries have declined large donations of vaccines, and millions of doses have ended up in the trash as expiration dates neared without anyone to use them.
“For this potentially life-saving concept to become reality, we will need to work with G7, and later this year in Bali with G20 to flesh out how to make it work,” Jean-Christophe Tellier, IFPMA president and CEO of UCB, said in a statement. “The reward if successful will help shape a future where everyone has a chance to be better protected from the threat of pandemics from the outset, no matter where they live.”
Governments should commit to unrestricted trade and no export bans across the supply chain for vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics, the Berlin Declaration says. And it calls for “expedited processes for import and export during a pandemic to help support fast and efficient global distribution.”