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The Asian countries that took the lead in controlling Covid-19 last year have fallen behind in the fight against the virus because their efforts to vaccinate the population lag behind the rest of the world.
Deployment issues vary from country to country, but in most parts of Asia, one factor is constant: Lack of vaccine management. Due to the failure to develop or produce vaccines domestically, many Asian countries have to wait for vaccines to be delivered from Europe or the United States, placing them behind.
Although Asia has become the world’s factory and has an increasing share of the global economy, the competition for vaccines shows that it is still lagging behind in medicine.
Among Advanced economiesThe situation in Japan, South Korea and Australia is staggering: Japan only injects 6.3 shots of vaccine for every 100 people, compared with 90 in the UK. In large developing economies such as Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines, the vaccination campaign has just begun.
India has huge vaccine production capacity, but only 14 injections per 100 people are given and it is suffering from the devastating outbreak of Covid-19. Even China, which contains this virus and has developed its own vaccine, only takes 36 doses per 100 people.
Scientists and industry analysts pointed out the following reasons Asia is struggling. The relative success of the region in controlling Covid-19 means that there is less political pressure on vaccines. Fewer patients get sick leading to slow clinical trial results. And Asia lacks global pharmaceutical companies that can recruit patients from all over the world.
Ken Ishii, a professor of vaccine science at the University of Tokyo, said: “There is no Pfizer in Asia.”
The outbreak of SARS, Murse and bird flu in recent decades means that the public health system in Asia has been fully prepared, but this has had different effects on vaccines. After SARS, China began to take vaccine development seriously, but Japan spent billions of yen to manufacture influenza vaccine in a factory, which is the wrong technology for Covid-19.
In Asia, the biggest vaccine accident may be the fight in India.it is Indian Serum InstituteIt is the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer, producing approximately 60 to 70 million doses of Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine every month.
In large developing economies such as Thailand, the vaccination campaign has just begun © Narong Sangnak / EPA-EFE / Shutterstock
India is also capable of developing its own vaccine. Bharat Biotech launched the inactivated coronavirus vaccine Covaxin, which was approved for emergency use in January. However, the company’s production is limited to approximately 20 million doses per month.
Like several other countries in the region, India seems to have succeeded in controlling the virus. This means that the government does not urgently need to invest in vaccines as in Europe or the United States. In Europe or the United States, epidemics are raging and people’s normal lives are affected. Forced to close.
Murali Neelakantan, former global legal counsel for pharmaceutical companies Cipla and Glenmark, said: “The government firmly believes that Covid-19 will be withdrawn from the market in January and there is no plan B.”
Neelakantan said the company did not want to invest in increasing production capacity because “demand signals were overwhelmed by the Indian government’s voice that the pandemic is over.” “It won’t cost much, it’s painful.”
Similarly, Japan has not prioritized Vaccine developmentIshii said. Although researchers in the country have produced multiple drug candidates-including state-of-the-art DNA and RNA probing-none of them exceed the scope of small trials.
He said that Japan is not the only country, such as France, Switzerland and Large pharmaceutical company For example, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), Sanofi (Sanofi) and Merck (Merck) are all working hard to develop vaccines.
Ishii said this does show the need to combine cutting-edge science, the organizational influence of large pharmaceutical companies, and the government’s “cost-free” attitude. He said: “If BioNTech was just a German company, it would be impossible to provide this vaccine like Pfizer.”
A local analyst who asked not to be named said that the situation in South Korea is similar, with the industry focusing on contract manufacturing. The analyst said: “Developing a new vaccine in a short period of time requires a lot of capital, technology and researchers, but South Korea lacks all vaccines.”
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China is an exception in Asia. Its success in the development and mass production of vaccines proves that this capability is not unique to Europe and the United States. Indeed, the slow progress of its vaccination campaign partly reflects Beijing’s determination to become a global drug leader.
Chinese manufacturers exported nearly half of their products to meet Beijing’s requirements Diplomatic commitment Immunization abroad. Zhong Nanshan, a well-known Chinese epidemiologist and government consultant, said this month that the vaccination rate is still “far enough” to achieve herd immunity.
Margaret Labban, a senior life science analyst at IHS Markit in London, said that in the next five years, “we expect….. China will become a true global competitor in the biotechnology industry and completely subvert the traditional form of drug innovation.
Additional reporting by Edward White and Song Jung-a in Seoul and Christian Shepherd in Beijing
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