AstraZeneca inks big deals in search for ‘people’s vaccine’

The trend of collaborating on prospective Covid-19 drugs and vaccines continues, as drugmaker AstraZeneca signed multiple agreements to broaden access to a prospective vaccine from the University of Oxford.

AstraZeneca has an existing development and distribution agreement with the Oxford University on its Covid-19 vaccine and it recently signed a spate of agreements with the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), Gavi the Vaccine Alliance and India’s vaccine-producer the Serum Institute of India (SII) to facilitate “equitable global access” to this product.

The latest $750-million agreement with CEPI and Gavi would support the manufacturing, procurement and distribution of 300 million doses of the vaccine, with delivery starting by the end of the year, the company said.

A billion doses

Additionally, the licensing agreement with Serum was to supply one billion doses for low and middle-income countries, with a commitment to provide 400 million before the end of 2020, AstraZeneca added. AstraZeneca has existing partnerships with the UK and the US, a strategy that the industry calls “at risk” commitments on funding and production, in anticipation that the vaccine trials deliver positive outcomes.

“AstraZeneca recognises that the vaccine may not work but is committed to progressing the clinical programme with speed and scaling up manufacturing at risk,” the company said.

Interestingly, the agreements come even as reports suggested that studies in monkeys showed the Oxford vaccine not entirely protecting against the virus.

Subsequent reports, though, refuted this observation.

AZ’s agreement with CEPI and Gavi is also the first “advanced market commitment” through the Access to Covid-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator, a global mechanism co-chaired by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the World Health Organization (WHO), the company said.

‘Global public good’

Ahead of these alliances being formalised, humanitarian organisation Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders - MSF) had urged global leaders to demand pharmaceutical corporations commit to selling any potential future Covid-19 vaccine at cost. Especially since heads of state had referred to prospective Covid vaccines as “global public goods” and “the people’s vaccine”, MSF said.

Kate Elder, Senior Vaccines Policy Advisor for MSF’s Access Campaign, said: “We can’t apply business-as-usual principles here, where the highest bidders get to protect their people from this disease first, while the rest of the world is left behind. Governments must ensure any future Covid-19 vaccines are sold at cost and universally accessible to all across the world.”

Similar access-related criticism had recently been levelled at American bio-pharmaceutical company Gilead for signing voluntary licensing deals with select generic drugmakers in India and Pakistan for remdesivir, its anti-viral drug being tested on Covid patients.

Vaccine details

AZ said it was building supply chains across the world to support global access and had secured manufacturing capacity for two billion doses of the vaccine. Pascal Soriot,AstraZeneca’s Chief Executive Officer said they were working on ensuring access Oxford’s vaccine across the globe, “at no profit”.

Oxford University has announced the start of a Phase II/III trial of AZD1222 in about 10,000 adult volunteers. Other late-stage trials are due to begin in a number of countries. AstraZeneca has agreed to supply 400 million doses to the US and UK of the Oxford University’s recombinant adenovirus vaccine, formerly ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 and now known as AZD1222.

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