Thread by @WHO

Media briefing on #COVID19 with @DrTedros pscp.tv/w/cxD-SjI2MTAy…

"As you know, this was a landmark week for #COVAX, with the first vaccinations starting in Ghana 🇬🇭 and Côte d’Ivoire 🇨🇮"-@DrTedros #COVID19 #VaccinEquity

https://twitter.com/DrTedros/status/1364503901332979712?s=20

"In addition to those 2 countries, #COVAX has now delivered vaccines to 🇦🇴, 🇰🇭, 🇨🇴, the 🇨🇩, the 🇬🇲, 🇮🇳, 🇰🇪, 🇱🇸, 🇲🇼, 🇲🇱, 🇲🇩, 🇳🇬, the 🇵🇭, the 🇰🇷, 🇷🇼, 🇸🇳, 🇸🇩 & 🇺🇬"-@DrTedros #COVID19 #VaccinEquity

https://twitter.com/WHO/status/1367872133737701379?s=20

"In total, #COVAX has delivered more than 20 million doses of #COVID19 vaccine to 20 countries. In the next week, COVAX will deliver 14.4 million doses to a further 31 countries"-@DrTedros #VaccinEquity

"Earlier this week, #COVAX published the 1st round of allocations, covering the majority of economies participating in the Facility. This is encouraging progress, but the volume of doses being distributed through COVAX is still relatively small"-@DrTedros

https://twitter.com/WHO/status/1366873515715133444?s=20

"The first round of allocations covers between 2%-3% of the population of countries receiving #COVID19 vaccines through #COVAX, even as other countries make rapid progress towards vaccinating their entire population within the next few months"-@DrTedros

https://twitter.com/WHO/status/1367873347514736641?s=20

"One of our main priorities now is to increase the ambition of #COVAX to help all countries end the #COVID19 pandemic.

This means urgent action to ramp up production"-@DrTedros #VaccinEquity

"We currently face several barriers to increasing the speed and volume of production, from export bans to shortages of raw materials including glass, plastic and stoppers"-@DrTedros #COVID19 #VaccinEquity

"WHO is working on4⃣approaches:

1⃣ & most short-term approach is to connect companies who are producing #COVID19 vaccines with other companies who have excess capacity to fill & finish.

This could help to speed up production and increase volumes"-@DrTedros #VaccinEquity

"For example, part of the deal between Johnson & Johnson and Merck announced this week is for Merck to provide fill and finish for the J&J #COVID19 vaccine"-@DrTedros #VaccinEquity

"We need more partnerships like this, and we need them in all regions. WHO can support this process by identifying gaps and providing a “matchmaking” service between #COVID19 vaccine producers and companies with capacity"-@DrTedros #VaccinEquity

https://twitter.com/WHO/status/1367874194638315520?s=20

"2⃣ approach is bilateral technology transfer, through voluntary licensing from a company that owns the patents on a #COVID19 vaccine to another company who can produce them"-@DrTedros #VaccinEquity

"A good example of this approach is AstraZeneca, which has transferred the technology for its #COVID19 vaccine to SKBio 🇰🇷 & the Serum Institute 🇮🇳, which is producing AstraZeneca vaccines for #COVAX. The main disadvantage of this approach is the lack of transparency"-@DrTedros

"3⃣approach is coordinated technology transfer. This would involve universities & manufacturers licensing their #COVID19 vaccines to other companies through a 🌍mechanism coordinated by WHO, which would facilitate the training of staff & coordinate 💰 in infrastructure"-@DrTedros

"This provides more transparency, and a more coherent global approach that contributes to regional health security"-@DrTedros #COVID19 #VaccinEquity

https://twitter.com/WHO/status/1367875482402820103?s=20

"And it’s a mechanism that would increase production capacity not only for the #COVID19 pandemic, but for future pandemics and potentially for the production of vaccines for routine immunization programmes"-@DrTedros #VaccinEquity

https://twitter.com/WHO/status/1367875482402820103?s=20

"In fact, WHO has done this before.

After the spread of H5N1 influenza in the mid-2000s, WHO supported technology transfer for the production of pandemic flu vaccines to 14 countries, increasing global capacity by more than 700 million doses"-@DrTedros #VaccinEquity

"4⃣ many countries with vaccine manufacturing capacity can start producing their own vaccines by waiving intellectual property rights, as provided for in the TRIPS agreement. Those provisions are there for use in emergencies. If now is not a time to use them, when is?"-@DrTedros

"We thank 🇿🇦 & 🇮🇳 for the proposal to @wto to waive patents on medical products for #COVID19 until the end of the pandemic. Next week, WHO & #COVAX partners will meet with partners from govts & industry to identify bottlenecks in production & discuss how to solve them"-@DrTedros

"To speak more about the potential for technology transfer, today I’m delighted to be joined by Dr Marie-Paule Kieny, the Chair of the Medicines Patent Pool Foundation"-@DrTedros

"Dr Kieny is no stranger to WHO. Until 2017, she served as WHO’s Assistant Director-General for Health Systems and Innovation. She is now the Director of Research at Inserm, the National Institute of Health and Medical Research in Paris"-@DrTedros

https://twitter.com/WHO/status/1367876869505302531?s=20

The full remarks by @DrTedros at the #COVID19 media briefing - 5 March 2021 👇 bit.ly/38clnIv