Pfizer’s RSV shot access commitment faces challenges. Global health authorities told Reuters that Pfizer Inc (PFE.N) has vowed to provide crucial new medicines faster in low-income nations. Still, its initial vaccination endeavor confronts challenges that may delay distribution for years.
Last year, Pfizer pledged to provide more equitable access to its COVID-19 vaccine after criticism that it prioritized wealthy nations. In addition, the business seeks to reduce the time impoverished nations wait to acquire immunizations.
In September, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation gave the company $28 million to introduce the respiratory syncytial virus vaccine in impoverished nations where the common cold-like virus may kill very young infants.
Pfizer expects to deploy its maternal RSV vaccine in the US and Europe in the fall after it is authorized in August and several months later. The maternity vaccination and RSV injection for older individuals are expected to sell for over $2 billion yearly.
The vaccine will need new packaging and syringes in underdeveloped nations in Africa and Asia. The World Health Organization and the corporation are initiating preparations for those revisions, which may delay delivery by many years.
Health authorities say the example shows how drugmakers, governments, and health groups must prepare ahead for worldwide access.
“They could have tried sooner,” WHO’s RSV vaccination technical officer Erin Sparrow said of Pfizer. “It’s disappointing, but they’re right now.”
Pfizer wants to provide medications to impoverished nations faster but admits the hurdles.
“We are committed to working with the appropriate organizations, including regulatory authorities and other global health partners, to help ensure the vaccine candidate, once approved, is available in lower- and middle-income countries as quickly as possible,” a Pfizer spokesperson said when asked about the RSV shot timeline.
In an interview last month, Pfizer’s head of vaccines research and development, Annaliesa Anderson, said the firm still wanted to make its first vaccination available to pregnant women in low-income countries in the “same time frame” as wealthier nations.
Last May, it promised to donate its existing portfolio and newly developed drugs and vaccines to 45 low-income countries faster than before.
Anderson said the COVID-19 pandemic taught the company that “parallel development” could meet regional needs.
Comment Template