WHO chief says drug firms should share vaccine-making capacity (updated)

SK Biopharmaceuticals Co

05/02/2021 16:51

(Adds details about WHO review of AstraZeneca vaccine versions
made by SK Bioscience, Serum Institute)
    GENEVA, Feb 5 (Reuters) - World Health Organization chief
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called on more pharmaceutical
companies on Friday to share manufacturing facilities to help
ramp up the production of COVID-19 vaccines.
    The WHO also said its technical advisers would meet next
week to assess versions of the AstraZeneca  AZN.L  vaccine from
the Serum Institute of India (SII), the largest vaccine maker,
and from South Korea's SK Bioscience  326030.KS  ahead of a
possible WHO emergency listing.  
    Speaking at an online news briefing from Geneva, Tedros said
 almost 130 countries with a combined population of 2.5 billion
people were yet to administer any vaccines, and repeated his
plea for rich nations to share doses with poorer countries once
they have vaccinated health workers and older people.
    "But we also need a massive scale-up in production," the WHO
director general said.
    "Last week, Sanofi announced it would make its manufacturing
infrastructure available to support production of the
Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine. We call on other companies to follow
this example."
    France's Sanofi  SASY.PA  said last week it would will fill
Pfizer's  PFE.N  vaccine from July, aiming to help supply more
than 100 million doses this year amid massive demand.
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2K125U
    Other companies are already getting on board, as well.
    Switzerland's Novartis  NOVN.S  struck a similar deal for
the Pfizer shot, while Germany's Bayer  BAYGn.DE  signed on to
help CureVac  CVAC.O .  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N2K44CD  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N2K72E8
    
    EMERGENCY APPROVAL
    The WHO has so far approved a single COVID-19 vaccine for
emergency use, the shot from Pfizer and its German partner,
Biontech  22UAy.DE .  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2JB1QT
    That could be expanded soon, with the independent WHO
advisory group meeting on Feb. 15 to look at versions of
AstraZeneca and its partner Oxford University's shot being made
by the SII and SK Biosciences.
    "This data only came to us a few weeks ago," Mariangela
Simao, WHO assistant director general for vaccine access, said
of the upcoming assessment, adding the group must analyse not
only AstraZeneca's "core data", but also data from sites where
the vaccine is being made, of which there are eight, before
issuing its recommendation.

 (Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay and John Miller; Editing by
Catherine Evans and Alex Richardson)