At a vaccine summit hosted by the British government on Thursday, world leaders discussed the difficult question of how to distribute any potential coronavirus vaccine that may be developed by the many researchers around the world ethically and equally.
According to a report by the Associated Press, the United Nations and the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement are advocating for "a people's vaccine" that would be freely available for everyone.
The summit raised $8.8 billion, above its target, for GAVI, a global vaccine alliance, which will be used to vaccinate about 300 million children globally for diseases like malaria, pneumonia and HPV.
Those in attendance of the event argued that the unprecedented pandemic will most likely make efforts for a fair distribution of a vaccine extremely difficult. The worldwide panic for personal protective gear did not show encouraging signs that there will be much global cooperation if a vaccine is made available.
Total Global Cases: Over 6.68 Million
Total Deaths: Over 391,000
Total Recovered: Over 3.22 Million
New Developments
In a landmark decision, The Lancet has retracted the influential study on the safety and effectiveness of the anti-malaria drugs hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine for the treatment of COVID-19. The move came at the request of the authors of the study who were not directly involved with the data collection and sources, according to the medical journal.
"We can no longer vouch for the veracity of the primary data sources," the researchers issued in a statement. "Due to this unfortunate development, the authors request that the paper be retracted."
According to STAT, The Lancet study of the anti-malaria drugs had gained so much attention because it went further than other observational studies that had similar conclusions. The study, which was based on data from 671 hospitals on six continents, also reported that the drugs corresponded with a higher mortality rate. The study had also lead to the halting of multiple clinical trials that are needed to truly discern whether or not the drug can serve as an effective treatment or prevention.
The pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca
AstraZeneca stated that it had made a licensing deal with the Serum Institute of India to produce the 1 billion doses for low and middle income countries, with 400 million set to be delivered by the end of 2020.
The pharmaceutical also reached an agreement with the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and GAVI to support the manufacturing, procurement and distribution of 300 million dose of the vaccine, with delivery starting by the end of the year.
According to AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot on a call on Thursday, reported by CNBC, the drugmaker plans to start distributing the vaccine to the U.S. and U.K. in September or October, with full delivery likely to be made by early 2021. However, the timeline is dependent on clinical trials taking place in August.
"We are very focused and very committed. When you have something like this with this sort of pandemic and the tremendous impact it has on people, the economy, et cetera, you can't second-guess what's going to happen. You can't spend your time figuring out is it going to work or not going to work, you just have to commit," Soriot stated.
