The U.S. government is facing pressure to do more to force vaccine manufacturers to share their COVID-19 vaccine formulas with the world to help boost global production and vaccination rates, especially in low and middle income countries.
The Biden administration has supported the idea of forcing intellectual property rights off, but has faced stark pushback from manufacturers.
Dr. Francis Collins, director of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, told Yahoo Finance he believes that expanding manufacturing abroad is going to be far more time-consuming than simply relying on the existing production of companies.
The main way to increase vaccine production today, is in the facilities that are already doing this. It takes months, sometimes years to launch safe brand new vaccine manufacturing facilities and get them actually credentialed, Collins said.
If we want to see the billions of doses that are needed as quickly as possible, it ought to do everything possible to ramp up production in the companies that are already doing this. That's certainly something that the U.S. government is investing in, he added.
Joe Biden reiterated a point President Collins and the White House COVID -19 Response Team have often made that the U.S. has contributed more doses to the world than any other country on Earth.
The rise of the largest vaccine producer, Serum Institute of India, has given rise to domestic distribution of doses as the Delta variant surged in India in March. The shift reduced its contribution to COVAX facility, spearheaded by the World Health Organization, which would have been key for equitable access for low and middle-income countries.
More global manufacturing is fundamental of sharing intellectual property and the launch of European Trade Policy.
I would like to see a lot more vaccine manufacturing capacity in high-income countries, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, said Collins.
The pandemic, he adds, does not provide the scale of production that is needed in the next few months to help end the pandemic.
Companies like Moderna MRNA and Pfizer PFE have come under fire for not doing enough to contribute to poor countries, particularly in the Low and Middle Income countries.
Dr. David Kessler, former FDA Commissioner and current White House COVID - 19 Response Leader, has told a Yale University panel that the Federal government was in serious talks with Moderna to do more.
We expect Moderna will step up as a company, Kessler said, noting that the company still has to build up its capacity.
Kessler also noted that negotiations with Moderna were nothing but 'light touch', I assure you. In response, Moderna, once a low- and middle-income biotech with zero products, has said it will make good on all its promises including to contribute to small-cap countries.
A year ago, we were determined to produce up to 1 billion doses in our own facility, supplemented by partnerships. We had a lot to prove to ourselves and others, and few could have predicted how far we have come today. But we recognize that our work is not done, said CEO St phane Bancel in a recent letter.
These two companies have however announced plans for manufacturing in Africa. Pfizer announced in July that it would collaborate with Biovac Institute in South Africa at the end of 2021, from now onwards.
Collins said that it is something that will not provide the immediate solution we'd love to have in the next few months. By then, Collins will be out of his post as an NIH head.
Collins announced he left the role of the nation's top public research institute by the end of the year, leaving behind a more than ten-year legacy at the helm of the national leader.
Collins, the longest serving director to date, announced that he was leaving earlier this month but not into retirement. Instead he is going back to his lab at the National Human Genome Research Institute.
Do you believe that no single person should serve in the position too long, and that it's time to bring a new scientist to lead the NIH into the future, he said in his statement.
Collins has led the nation's top science research agency through three administrations in 12 years — marking the first time a director has remained beyond a single administration. He previously served as director of the National Human Genome Research Institute, where he was part of the international effort to sequence the human genome.
Throughout the pandemic he has been a practicing proponent of and protected funding for COVID - 19 vaccines, treatments and tests. He spoke especially to those of the Christian faith, leaning on his own example as a vocal Christian to help assuage fears and concerns.