AstraZeneca could benefit from COVID-19 antibody as right on time as July

Overview

• Post By : Kumar Jeetendra


• Source: Reuters


• Date: 08 Oct,2020

AstraZeneca could start profiting from the COVID-19 vaccine as soon as July next year, the Financial Times reported Wednesday, citing a memo showing the British drugmaker can declare when it considers the pandemic to have ended.

The London-listed firm previously said it wouldn’t profit from the vaccine”during the pandemic”, and the report attributes the development to a memorandum of understanding signed this year between AstraZeneca and Brazilian public health organization, Fiocruz.

AstraZeneca, which developed the vaccine with Oxford University, signed multiple supply-and-manufacture deals for at least 3 billion doses worldwide, although details on the conditions have been scant.

According to FT, the”Pandemic Period” could be further extended beyond July 1, 2021, but only if Cambridge, England-based AstraZeneca”acting in good faith considers that the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic is not over.”

“From the outset, AstraZeneca’s approach has been to care for the development of the vaccine as a response to a global public health crisis, not a commercial opportunity,” that the drugmaker said in a statement on Thursday.

The company said it has created multiple supply chains to ensure that access to its own vaccine is timely, broad and equitable for high- and low-income countries equally,”with capacity currently in excess of three billion doses.”

“We continue to operate in that public spirit and we will find expert guidance, including from global organisations, as to when we can say that the pandemic is behind us,” the company added.

Pricing and distribution of experimental COVID-19 vaccines have been widely debated as wealthier countries pump billions of dollars into funding, and AstraZeneca has also been granted protection against future liability claims.