Vaccine in campaign: AstraZeneca not responsible
The SARS-CoV-2 vaccine is becoming a broken toy at the whim of circumstance: while people are thinking about their health and well-being, the pharmacists are thinking about adding to the box and, in turn, Donald Trump is trying to win an election by using the vaccine as a personal success story.
Recently, the Financial Times revealed that the US president wanted to present the coronavirus vaccine days before the polls on 3 November, mainly in order to give his campaign a greater boost.
Although the Federal and Drug Administration (FDA) denies receiving pressure from the White House to approve the marketing of the Moderna vaccine (currently in phase 3 clinical trials on more than 30,000 people), it was Trump himself who accused Stephen Hahn, the FDA commissioner, of hindering everything.
The vaccine has crept into the campaign and also into geopolitics with Russia's pro-Russian nations seeking their Sputnik V vaccine, which was approved, since 11 August, in the country led by Vladimir Putin.
Since trials began in several laboratories around the world, some since January, as soon as China shared the SARS-CoV-2 sequence, the White House strategy has been based on giving grants and contracts to several promising projects; all in exchange for ensuring that it is the first country in the world to receive hundreds of millions of doses of coronavirus immunisation.
The money spent on this health initiative amounts to $10.761 billion, which is what the US public purse has contributed mainly to six pharmaceutical companies with various laboratories testing vaccines out of 150 that are being developed in several countries of the world.
The following are the pharmaceutical companies that have been awarded the prize: the modern American company with 2.455 billion dollars and pre-purchase of 100 million doses; the German company Biontech and Pfizer with 1.95 billion dollars, also setting aside 100 million doses; followed by the British company AstraZeneca with the Oxford vaccine with a contribution of 1.2 billion dollars and pre-purchase of 300 million doses; Another American, Novavax, received $1.6 billion for 100 million doses; Janssen and Johnson & Johnson with $1.456 billion and 100 million doses; finally, Britain's GSK and France's Sanofi with $2.1 billion and 100 million doses.
The total is 800 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine pre-purchased by the United States from various laboratories around the world; not only did it account for all the production of Remdesivir until next October, it now also includes the vaccine for the West.
Remdesivir, one of the drugs urgently authorised by the FDA and also by the European Medicines Agency, is produced by the American pharmaceutical company Gilead.
Trump's pressure is not new. A few months ago, when the pandemic was declared by the World Health Organisation (WHO) on 11 March, an emergency committee in Washington launched Operation Warp Speed (speed of light) with the aim of securing a vaccine as quickly as possible.
This fast track vaccine - no matter which laboratory - has WHO managers and officials quite nervous, its owner Tedros Adhanom warns that they will only approve those vaccines that meet "at least" 30% effectiveness.
Meanwhile, he warns that vaccines in record time run the risk of failing to complete clinical trial phases properly and causing undesirable collateral damage.
In fact, the British pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca, in its contracts signed with the various countries in the world that want to have doses of the Oxford vaccine (in the last phase of the trial), includes a clause in which it is exempted from any liability for adverse effects that the vaccine could trigger in people within four years.
AstraZeneca is covering itself, and is also asking for compensation, pointing out that it cannot be sued because governments and their health authorities are responsible. In reality, the only people responsible will be those who get the vaccine, which will not be compulsory but voluntary.