Dose sharing as a part of the COVID-19 global vaccine equity strategy
Dose sharing is one of the strategies helping to accelerate work to broaden global access to COVID-19 vaccines.
Dose sharing is one of the strategies helping to accelerate work to broaden global access to COVID-19 vaccines.
The following is part of a series of Catalyst posts detailing each of the five strategies to advance COVID-19 global vaccine equity – which rely on and benefit from a strong innovation ecosystem.
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has been met with the most efficient vaccine development process in history. Even before the first emergency use authorization, the biopharmaceutical industry knew that scaling up manufacturing capabilities at unprecedented speeds would be critical and we committed to share the available capacity and engage in diverse partnerships to support the global production and distribution of vaccines; the industry also signed on as a founding partner to the World Health Organization’s ACT-Accelerator.
Even with these commitments, much remains to be done to ensure COVID-19 vaccines are equitably distributed to all. As biopharmaceutical innovators and governments work as quickly as possible to broaden global access to COVID-19 vaccines, one of the strategies helping to accelerate this process is dose sharing.
Dose sharing entails working with governments that have directly purchased COVID-19 vaccine doses to contribute to the global supply through COVAX or other efficient, established distribution mechanisms. Collaboration to increase dose sharing has been one of the most immediate steps to close the vaccine coverage gap, redirecting doses to low- and middle-income countries that did not secure agreements with vaccine manufacturers earlier in the pandemic.
While there is more to be done, a meaningful number of doses have already been committed, and increasingly distributed, to populations who can benefit. Examples include:
With millions of doses either shared or making their way to nations in need, we are already seeing the benefits of dose sharing as a strategy to promote COVID-19 vaccine equity. Leaders should focus on this and other meaningful solutions to ensure more shots are administered to more people.
Rather than pursuing misguided proposals to waive international commitments to protect intellectual property (IP) for COVID-19 innovations, industry supports practical strategies like dose sharing that better serve low- and middle-income nations while also upholding the IP ecosystem that made COVID-19 innovation possible.