As the world struggles with COVID-19 more than two years after the virus first broke out, vaccine disparities continue to undermine the global response in some regions. During the annual meetings for three major vaccine players, access advocates are asking investors to step in.
While 65.1% of the world population has received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose, only 15.2% of people in low-income countries can say the same, according to Our World In Data. Vaccine inequity could cost the global economy more than $2 trillion by 2025 and spur “bouts of social unrest,” according to a CNBC report last summer.
Oxfam, a global advocacy organization, has a goal for “everyone, everywhere” to have access to COVID-19 vaccines. The group says three major vaccine players shoulder much of the blame for vaccine disparities. During their annual meetings, it's renewing calls more transparency and access.
Oxfam previously presented resolutions to Moderna and Pfizer shareholders asking them to push the companies to study the feasibility of transferring vaccine technology and “know-how” to lower-income regions. Johnson & Johnson shareholders received a separate resolution centered on COVID-19 vaccine pricing.
All three companies are encouraged to share their technical knowledge with the World Health Organization (WHO).
The annual meetings for all three companies are today, April 28, so Oxfam and its partners are making their case with prerecorded messages to investors.
“If Moderna worked with us, we could submit the WHO’s COVID-19 Vaccine mRNA Technology Transfer hub’s vaccine for approval at least one year sooner, which would save lives, decrease the risk of variants, and reduce the pandemic’s economic toll,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Ph.D., WHO director-general, said in a recorded address to Moderna shareholders.
While Moderna agreed to sell 500 million doses to COVAX and 110 million to the African Union, Oxfam said those numbers are insufficient. Further, while Moderna said it won't enforce patents during the pandemic, Oxfam said the commitment doesn’t mean much without the company transferring technology and know-how to other manufacturers
Oxfam also took issue with Pfizer's equitable vaccine efforts. Last July, the company and its mRNA partner BioNTech tapped South Africa's Biovac to handle fill-finish of doses for African countries. Still, Oxfam points out that Biovac won’t be able to develop the expertise required to produce the vaccine’s active ingredient or to make other mRNA vaccines.
As for J&J, the advocates are asking investors to press the company to explain how public research contributions affected pricing. Oxfam noted that while J&J has been distributing its vaccine on a “nonprofit” basis—a commitment that is limited to “emergency pandemic use”—the company has not clarified what “nonprofit” means when a significant portion of the cost is funded by the government.
"Millions of grandparents and healthcare workers across Africa are not protected from this virus," Maaza Seyoum, global south convener of the People’s Vaccine Alliance, said in a message to J&J investors. "In India alone, over two million children have lost a parent to the pandemic. These lives matter.”
Oxfam’s resolutions passed through the Securities and Exchange Commission in February. The companies tried to avoid the shareholder votes, but the agency ruled that the proposals transcend "ordinary business matters" and don't "seek to micromanage the company.”