COVAX had originally planned to distribute 250 million Novavax doses by March. However, the U.N. agency responsible for deliveries has said that the first shipment won't likely be made until April/May.
This was not supposed to happen. Novavax was developed by CEPI, one the leading COVAX organizations. It received $388 million from CEPI to accelerate the vaccine's development. This was in order to make the shot more accessible in the poorer countries where the pandemic was still raging two years ago.
COVAX was guaranteed the "right to first refusal" to Novavax doses. However, the deal only applied to factories in South Korea, Spain and the Czech Republic according to Bjorg Dystvold Nylsson, CEPI spokesperson.
Other factories are not included in the deal, and their shots are being taken elsewhere.
The Serum Institute of India is the largest manufacturer of vaccines in the world and has produced millions of Novavax doses. The institute and India's Ministry of External Affairs claim that more than 28.9 millions of these doses were sent to the Netherlands in February and January respectively, and Australia received approximately 6 million doses. In December, Indonesia received approximately 9 million doses.
Many other Novavax doses were also shipped to EU countries from a Dutch factory.
"Regardless of the reason, a vaccine once thought to be highly suitable to poor countries is now in large parts going to rich countries," Zain Rizvi (a U.S. advocacy organization Public Citizen) said. "It is tragic that we are still unable to get the resources, attention, and political will needed to end vaccine inequity in year three of the pandemic."
This delay is the latest setback to COVAX. COVAX has been repeatedly affected by supply issues and has missed many targets for sharing doses.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO's director general, decried last year the gap in vaccine supplies between rich & poor countries as "catastrophic moral failing."
Although vaccine availability has improved in the poorer regions of the country, logistical issues persist.
Oxford University data shows that only 14% of low-income people have received at most one dose of COVID-19 vaccine. According to government data, more than 680,000,000 doses of COVAX-provided vaccinations are still unutilized or expired.
Some officials eagerly awaited the Novavax vaccine, mainly because it was easier to transport and store than other coronavirus shots. They also believed it would be more appealing to those who were skeptical about the AstraZeneca vaccination, which was halted in Europe after a failed rollout.
Novavax will be available in March to countries like Zimbabwe, Central African Republic, and Kiribati.
Novavax, a small American company that never had a vaccine on the market before the pandemic was declared, was not even a viable option. Although its shots have been highly successful, it relies heavily on other companies for their production.
The company is having difficulty scaling up production and has also delayed delivery to other countries including the European Union. COVAX is expected to receive more Novavax doses than 1 billion.
The Gaithersburg, Maryland-based company said that while it has not yet shared any shots with Gavi, the vaccine alliance, it stated that it is ready to do so.
Novavax stated that they continue to collaborate with Gavi in order to achieve our common goal of providing global access to the protein-based vaccine wherever it is most needed.
Gavi suggested that part of the delay could be due to the fact that Novavax was not approved by WHO until December. Gavi stated that it plans to distribute Novavax in future and is "in close contact with the manufacturer" and anticipates that the supply will be available when countries require it.
Officials in the health sector are also concerned that there is no urgency to immunize everyone against COVID-19, especially since many countries have resorted to using precautions and the attention of the rest of the world has been diverted.
"Rich countries have moved past COVID, and everyone is fixated upon the war in Ukraine," stated Ritu Sharma, vice-president of charity CARE.
She stated that COVAX is still in desperate need of vaccines, and that the world was still years away from being able to immunize enough people to prevent future COVID-19 waves.
Others agreed that public health agencies had a responsibility to make sure their vaccine investments benefit the poor and be more transparent about what went wrong.
Brook Baker, a Northeastern University access to medicine specialist, said that no matter what the reason, it is unsatisfactory. "The bottom line is that many people are still not vaccinated in poor countries, and they are once again at the back end of the line."
