LONDON UK (Agencies) – The covid-19 vaccine being developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca will be sold “at cost” worldwide. This statement was said by the director of the British pharmaceutical laboratory, which hopes to deliver it “before the end of the year”. They estimate that it could cost 2.5 euros per unit (about 65 Mexican pesos).
“Our goal is to supply the vaccine to everyone, we have a goal that is also to do so without benefit, that is, we will deliver the vaccine at cost price worldwide,” Pascal Soriot, AstraZeneca’s CEO, told RTL. “At cost price it will be about 2.5 euros per unit,” he added about the vaccine that has shown positive effects against the new coronavirus SARS CoV2.
The US group Johnson & Johnson hopes to do the same, while Pfizer, Merck and Moderna confirmed that they will not sell their covid-19 vaccines at cost price, during a hearing at the US Congress. “We will not sell at cost” said Moderna president Stephen Hoge in response to a question from a congressman. The biotechnology company has developed one of the most advanced experimental vaccines, with phase 3 trials starting next week on 30,000 volunteers.
The company received $483 million in public money from the United States to fund research and development, but without a supply contract for the country, Hoge said.
The first clinical trials of AstraZeneca’s vaccine produced a significant immune response and proved safe for patients. Its efficacy must be established in a Phase 3 trial, with much larger numbers of participants, before it can be considered for commercialisation. “Our hope is to have results in the fall (for this Phase 3 study), so we think we will be able to provide the covid-19 vaccine by the end of the year at the latest,” Soriot said. “We are working in concert with the regulators, exchanging data on a daily basis so that the evaluation can be done quickly. We manufacture at the same time as we do clinical trials, which saves time,” he said.
The group began producing vaccines “in many regions” so that they are “ready to be used if clinical results are positive,” according to AstraZeneca’s director.