We urge you to take the following steps to scale up and diversify production and shipments of Covid-19 vaccines, especially prioritizing mRNA technology: These companies have had ample opportunities to share technology and knowledge and enable the production of vaccines more widely but have failed to do so. It provided significant funding for the underlying innovations that brought the Moderna, Pfizer-BioNTech, and J&J vaccines to the public so quickly and is uniquely positioned to ensure the benefits of publicly funded scientific research–especially in the cases of Moderna and J&J–are shared more widely. The US government has substantially supported the three US vaccine makers. Finally, mRNA technology can be adapted rapidly to target other pathogens, meaning that building vaccine manufacturing capacity may offer significant long-term benefits for public health well beyond the Covid-19 pandemic. As the MSF Access Campaign has explained, because the production of “mRNA vaccines is a relatively simple cell-free process more akin to biochemical synthesis than traditional cell-based production of vaccines,” it is “easier to standardise and therefore to transfer to more facilities in short timeframes.” In other words, many more manufacturers are capable of receiving mRNA technology transfer than technologies that rely on living cells, so mRNA technology holds out the promise of much more transformational impact on the geographical distribution of vaccine manufacturing. The WHO-listed Covid-19 mRNA vaccines showed great efficacy in clinical trials, and are understood to be among the easiest to modify to target new variants such as Omicron. Transfer of the mRNA technology is of particular importance for global health now and for future pandemic preparedness. The US government should urgently identify capable manufacturers from these and other lists and ensure that they, along with relevant WHO technology transfer hubs, have timely access to intellectual property, vaccine technology, and materials needed to support manufacturing. We have enclosed a copy of their report with this letter. In late October, the New York Times identified “10 strong candidates to produce mRNA vaccines in six countries on three continents.” In September 2021, Indian civil society organizations wrote to the US government, listing 34 potential manufacturers in 20 different countries who may be equipped to produce the J&J vaccine. The coordinator of the AccessIBSA Project and a vaccine expert from the Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) Access Campaign have jointly identified over 100 manufacturers from Africa, Asia, and Latin America with the potential to produce mRNA vaccines. The US pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies Moderna, Pfizer, and Johnson & Johnson (J&J) developed or co-developed lifesaving vaccines, but they have not shared knowledge and technology widely with capable manufacturers in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, hindering the global Covid-19 health response and allowing the virus-including new variants-to spread. Severely unequal access to Covid-19 vaccines and global supply shortages continue to threaten health, lives, and livelihoods as new variants emerge. While the US and other high-income governments are administering booster shots and third doses, many people at high-risk of severe illness and death in low- and middle-income countries are still waiting for their first dose.
The new Covid-19 virus Variant of Concern, Omicron, and emerging surges of the pandemic, make US government action more urgent. We write on behalf of Human Rights Watch and Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) USA to urge you to take all available measures to ensure US Covid-19 vaccine developers undertake technology transfers abroad and support the wider manufacture of Covid-19 vaccines to swiftly save lives and protect human rights around the world. Re: Urgent Intervention to Ensure US Covid-19 Vaccine Developers Share Technology David Kessler, Chief Science Officer for the COVID-19 Response
Human Rights Watch’s correspondence with Covid-19 vaccine makers can be found here.Ī new report by vaccine experts identifying 100+ companies with mRNA manufacturing potential can be found here.Īcting Coordinator for Global COVID Response and Health SecurityĬc: Jeff Zients, White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator and Counselor to the President Ron Klain, White House Chief of Staff Dr.
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