As developing countries around the world struggle to secure COVID-19 vaccine supplies, higher production capacity appeared to have allowed vaccines developed by Chinese pharmaceutical companies to obtain a larger market share despite having lower efficacy compared to vaccines offered by Russia
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 09th March, 2021) As developing countries around the world struggle to secure COVID-19 vaccine supplies, higher production capacity appeared to have allowed vaccines developed by Chinese pharmaceutical companies to obtain a larger market share despite having lower efficacy compared to vaccines offered by Russia.
Facing enormous domestic political pressure to end the pandemic through mass vaccination campaigns, governments in rich developed countries in Europe and North America prioritized securing COVID-19 vaccine supplies for domestic use. A number of European countries went as far as introducing export bans on COVID-19 vaccines produced by Western pharmaceutical companies such as Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has decried such selfish behavior of Western governments and warned that limited access to COVID-19 vaccines by developing countries would prolong the global pandemic, which could only end when the majority of the world's population have been vaccinated.
Unable to secure COVID-19 vaccine supplies from Western pharmaceutical companies, a large number of developing countries in Africa, Asia and South America turned to vaccines offered by China and Russia.
While Russia's Sputnik V vaccine was the first registered COVID-19 vaccine in the world and carried a high efficacy of 91.6 percent, the limited production capacity of the Russian vaccine forced many developing countries to place orders for the less effective vaccines produced by Chinese pharmaceutical companies.
DIFFERENCE IN FULFILLING ORDERS
After the Health Ministry registered Sputnik V in Russia on August 11 last year, Russian producers of the vaccine quickly inked a number of massive supply deals with Mexico, Brazil, Uzbekistan, Nepal and Egypt in last September.
While Sputnik V's deal with Brazil promised a supply of up to 50 million doses, agreements with Mexico, Uzbekistan, Nepal and Egypt all pledged supplies above 25 million doses.
Sputnik V also signed deals with Argentina and Bolivia last December with projected supply of 10 million doses and 2.6 million doses, respectively.
However, by late February, Argentina has only received 1.22 million doses of the Sputnik V vaccine from Russia's Gamaleya Institute, the developer and producer of the Russian vaccine. The number of doses Argentina received fell short of the five million doses the country was expected to receive from Russia by the end of January.
At the same time, one week after signing a deal with Chinese pharmaceutical firm Sinopharm, Argentina received 904,000 doses on February 25, with another 96,000 doses arriving on February 28 to complete the deal for one million doses.
The efficacy of Sinopharm's COVID-19 vaccine is 79.34 percent, which is lower than that of Sputnik V.
After receiving the first batch of 20,000 doses of Sputnik V on January 28, Bolivia has not reported additional shipment of the Russian vaccine.
However, after signing a vaccine supply deal with Sinopharm on February 11, Bolivia received all the pledged 400,000 doses on February 24, with another 100,000 doses donated by China.
Competition in the COVID-19 vaccine market in Africa and Europe painted a similar picture.
After the initial ambitious agreement with a pharmaceutical company in Egypt to offer 25 million doses of Sputnik V to the country was announced in last September, Egyptian Drug Authority said on February 24 that the country planned to buy 10 million doses of the Russian vaccine in the first stage.
Despite approving Sputnik V for domestic use on the same day, Egypt has not reported any shipment of the Russian vaccine to the country.
Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine carried out clinical trials in Egypt, which received a first batch of 50,000 doses last December. A second batch of 300,000 doses of Sinopharm vaccine arrived on February 23. The African country kicked off its national vaccination campaign on January 24 with the Sinopharm vaccine.
Similarly, Serbia has received 293,000 doses of Sputnik V as of this week, after signing a 2-million-dose supply agreement with Russia on January 6. The Eastern European country first imported one million doses of Sinopharm's vaccine on January 16 and received a second batch of 500,000 doses on February 10.
Sinopharm's strength appears to lie in its massive production capacity, despite its COVID-19 vaccine's inferior efficacy.
According to Sinopharm's Chairman Liu Jingzhen, the company produced almost 100 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine by the end of 2020 and aims to make one billion doses this year.
Russia has produced 7.9 million doses of Sputnik V by March 1 for civilian use, Alla Trapkova, the acting Head of Department of the state quality control of medical products at Russia's health care watchdog Roszdravnadzor, said last Thursday.
To compensate for the production bottleneck of Sputnik V, Russia has reached agreements with a number of countries, including Argentina, Brazil, Kazakhstan, Serbia and Turkey, to produce the Russian vaccine locally.
The COVID-19 vaccine developed by Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinovac reported only 50.65 percent efficacy during clinical trials in Brazil and 83.5 percent efficacy during clinical trials in Turkey.
But both countries have placed orders for millions of doses of the Sinovac vaccine. Brazil has over 6 million Sinovac vaccine doses ready to be distributed in the country with plans to purchase a total of 140 million doses. Turkey has received over 6.5 million doses and expects 100 million doses to be delivered by the end of April.
Similarly, after taking part in clinical trials of the Sinovac vaccine, Indonesia has 3 million doses of the vaccine ready to be used and another 25 million doses arrived in the form of raw materials that are expected to be ready for use on March 20. The Asian country plans to buy at least 125 million doses of the Sinovac vaccine.
While Turkey has reached an agreement to produce Sputnik V in the country, both Brazil and Indonesia are still negotiating with Russia to finalize a deal on vaccine supply.
Taking advantage of the massive production capacity of Chinese pharmaceutical companies, China began to donate its COVID-19 vaccines to developing countries in Africa and Asia as part of its global geopolitical strategy. The country has pledged to offer up to 10 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to the COVAX global vaccine access program initiated by the World Health Organization.
According to the Chinese Foreign Ministry, China has donated COVID-19 vaccines to 53 countries.
The countries in Africa that received Chinese vaccine donations include Algeria, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea, Sierra Leone and Mozambique. Asian countries, including Brunei, Cambodia, Iran, Iraq, Laos, Maldives, Mongolia and Syria, have also received COVID-19 vaccines donated by China.
Beijing has also donated COVID-19 vaccines to European countries, including Belarus and Montenegro, as well as Latin American countries such as Guyana and Venezuela.
Meanwhile, many former Soviet states in Central Asia and Eastern Europe have opted for the Sputnik V vaccine from Russia, without expressing interest in Chinese vaccines. Kazakhstan and Mongolia have kicked off their domestic vaccination campaigns with Sputnik V, while Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan both plan to use the Russian vaccine.
Despite Azerbaijan kicking off its domestic vaccination campaign on January 18 with purchased Sinovac vaccine, neighboring Armenia has approved Sputnik V for domestic use and plans to place orders for 15,000 doses in the near future.
Geopolitical tensions appeared to have also played a role in countries' decisions as to which COVID-19 vaccine to buy.
For example, instead of buying Sputnik V from its neighbor Russia, Ukraine signed deals to buy 5 million doses of Sinovac vaccine and is expected to receive the first batch of 1.9 million doses in March.
Similarly, locked in territorial disputes in the South China Sea with Beijing, Vietnam has approved Russia's Sputnik V for domestic use, while never expressing interest in Chinese COVID-19 vaccines.
