Some of the world’s poorest countries have been warned to expect delays in the delivery of Covid-19 vaccines through the UN-backed Covax programme after a double blow of slower than expected production at a South Korean manufacturing plant and setbacks in securing export licences from the Indian government, Unicef has said.
Up to 90m doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine may be affected by the twin issues, which came after reports on Wednesday that India had put a temporary hold on vaccine exports amid a rise in new cases there.
Some of the countries expecting doses through Covax over the next week are South Sudan, Mauritius, Iraq, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Yemen, where the government on Wednesday declared a health emergency as a second wave of infections takes off. Unicef said on Thursday it was not immediately clear how those deliveries would be affected.
“The Covax facility has informed participants allocated volumes of the [Oxford/AstraZeneca] vaccine produced in South Korea that shipment volumes will be lower than planned in March,” a Unicef spokesperson said.
“In line with the challenges of the current global supply environment, this is due to challenges the company faces in rapidly scaling up supply and optimising production processes for these early deliveries. AstraZeneca has informed the [Covax] facility it will make up the delayed volumes during the April-May period.”
The UN organisation said it was working to confirm whether doses from the Serum Institute of India, the largest supplier to Covax, were subject to an export ban but said it understood there had been a “setback in securing export licences”.
“We understand that deliveries of Covid-19 vaccines to lower-income economies participating in the Covax facility will likely face delays following a setback in securing export licences for further doses of Covid-19 vaccines produced by the Serum Institute of India expected to be shipped in March and April,” the Unicef spokesperson said.
Covax – a collaboration between Unicef, the World Health Organization, the vaccine alliance Gavi and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations – uses purchases by wealthier nations to fund vaccine supplies to poorer and middle-income countries.
It has so far distributed 28m doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine manufactured by the Serum Institute, and said it was expecting an additional 40m doses to be available in March and up to 50m doses in April.
The Serum Institute is contracted to supply 1bn vaccine doses to Covax this year, and received $300m in funding support from Gavi and the Gates Foundation to assist it in expanding its capacity.
But the Serum Institute has competing commitments to AstraZeneca, the Indian government and to the contracts it signs privately to supply overseas governments, and it is not clear how the Pune-based manufacturer prioritises customers.
It has become apparent this week that India exercises the right to veto the Serum Institute’s exports depending on its own requirements. New cases across the country grew to 50,000 a day on Wednesday, the highest number in five months, prompting the government to ramp up its national vaccination programme.
At a rate of administering 3m doses a day, Delhi has already bought enough supplies to last about 50 days but is expecting to administer higher numbers to head off a possible second wave of cases.
“Covax is in talks with the government of India with a view to ensuring deliveries as quickly as possible,” Unicef said.
