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Covid vaccine, how and why the British government has focused on AstraZeneca

3 years ago babelfish

Covid vaccine, how and why the British government has focused on AstraZeneca

What emerged from the investigation of the Rai3 program on the AstraZeneca vaccine

After about 11 months of the Covid-19 pandemic, there are more than 1.32 million deaths in the world caused by the Sars-Cov-2 virus. National governments try to contain the spread of the pandemic by imposing restrictions on the movement and sociality of people.

Global attention, however, is all turned to the vaccine , the solution that should free humanity from the nightmare of Covid-19 and deliver this horrible parenthesis to the history books. At least 6 vaccines have now reached phase 3 of the trial. 

Report , the investigation program of Rai 3 , tried to shed light on the behind the scenes that today led the English AstraZeneca and the American Pfizer to compete for the primacy in the production of the vaccine for the Sars-Cov-2 virus.

Vaccine from Oxford or AstraZeneca?

The commercialization and diffusion of the vaccine against a virus that has brought every corner of the world to its knees brings with it reasons not only medical but also ethical. The Jenner Institute of Oxfort , a British public research center, has patented the first anti Covid-19 vaccine created together with the IRBM of Pomezia and AstraZeneca. 

Last April, Jenner Institute director Adrian Hill said there should be no exclusive vaccine licensing. A few months later the scenario changed. Things went differently because the vaccine made by Oxford will be produced under an exclusive license by AstraZeneca , the British giant in the pharmaceutical sector. 

Pressure from the British government

The British government , taking up the positions of pharmaceutical companies that would not be willing to produce a vaccine without an exclusive license, pressured the Jenner Institute to choose an English pharmaceutical company to which to entrust the exclusive license for the production of the vaccine. In contention were GSK and AstraZeneca and the choice falls on the latter. This is what Esteban Burrone , director of the Medicines Patent Pool , told Report  technician at the service of the UN, according to which the British government has relied on its investment of more than 130 million euros in research on the vaccine to push the Jenner Institute to choose a path pleasing to the big pharma. 

The role of Bill Gates

According to a Report source, Bill Gates, computer magnate, philanthropist and scientific research funder, preferred the path of protecting intellectual property through patents. In 2019, Bill Gates invested $ 331 million in the health sector, a part in the companies that are producing the vaccine. In particular, in August 2019 it subscribed to shares for a value of 55 million dollars in BioNTech , Pfizer's partner in the production of the anticovid vaccine. Now those shares are worth $ 340 million .

Bill Gates: the patent-loving philanthropist

In his role as philanthropist, Gates also protects intellectual property. Cepi is an international philanthropic organization that aims to promote vaccine research. Its donors include UN member states and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation , which recently donated $ 20 million to it. On 11 May 2020, Cepi announced the financing of Novavax, a pharmaceutical company that is studying a vaccine, causing, in the space of a week, its stock market share increase by 200%. Cepi, together with the Gavi organization also financed by Bill Gates with 1.5 billion dollars , and under the aegis of the UN launched the Covax project with the aim of creating a global purchasing center financed by all states in order to encourage equal distribution of the vaccine. However, none of the parties involved questioned the question of intellectual property, and therefore of the economic return relating to the patent of the vaccine. The idea of ​​a "common good vaccine" seems to find a home only in Europe.

Four contracts for the EU

The president of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen , who in the past had spoken of the vaccine as a global public good , has signed four contracts on behalf of the member states with Sanofi and GSK , Pfizer and BioNTech , AstraZeneca and J ohnson & Johnson . The European Commission draws on a 2.7 billion euro fund to purchase the doses in advance. The signing of these contracts, the extent of which is not known because the contracts are classified, however, has a significant risk for the institutional part because an asset is purchased whose real availability is not known . In the event that the vaccines were not produced, no refreshment would be provided.

Vaccines: pricing policy

However, the president of AstraZeneca has assured that in the constant pandemic the vaccine will be sold at cost price, without adding the patent value. The price for the AstraZeneca vaccine should range from $ 2.5 to $ 4 per dose . This pricing policy should last until the end of the emergency that, according to a source in the Financial Times , AstraZeneca would have set in July 2021 . From that moment on, the multinational could decide to raise the price of the vaccine despite having received 2.5 billion in public funds. 

Who manages the relationships with the pharmaceutical companies?

As for our country, according to what was revealed by Report , the Italian negotiator would be Giuseppe Ruocco, Secretary General of the Ministry of Health and member of the Technical Scientific Committee. To manage the relationships with pharmaceutical companies, starting from the first contacts with Astrazeneca, would be Walter Ricciardi , former president of the Istituto Superiore della Sanità and consultant to the health ministry.

The English vaccine with an Italian origin

IRBM, a Pomezia company owned by Pietro di Lorenzo , played a role in the development of the AstraZeneca vaccine. For about ten years, IRBM, a company operating in the sector of molecular biotechnology, biomedical science and organic chemistry, has collaborated with the University of Oxford . Over the years, IRBM has developed recognized expertise in the study of adenoviruses , i.e. chimpanzee influenza viruses, so much so that it has come to identify 23 types. Why is chimpanzee adenovirus important for the Covid vaccine? Because adenoviruses are used as vehicles to ferry the Spike protein inside the human body, the one discovered in Oxford and responsible for the human body's immune response against Sars-Cov-2. When in June Oxford identified the Spike protein there were contacts with the Irbm of Pomezia but, according to what was said by the president of the Irbm Pietro di Lorenzo , the uncertainties of the Italian government and the lack of a decisive economic intervention – according to the reconstruction of Report – created a crack in which the British government of Boris Johnson entered the table, which put 130 million euros on the plate, guaranteeing the possibility of choosing to entrust vaccine production to the English Astrazeneca. 

This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/sanita/vaccino-anti-covid-come-e-perche-il-governo-inglese-ha-puntato-su-astrazeneca/ on Tue, 17 Nov 2020 13:40:38 +0000.