WHO: Rich nations, vaccine firms should stop bilateral deals

GENEVA (AP) — The World Health Organization chief appealed on Friday to makers of COVID-19 vaccines and the wealthier countries buying them to “stop making bilateral deals,” saying they hurt a U.N.-backed effort to widen access to the jabs.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said 42 countries are now rolling out such vaccines, mostly high-income and a few middle-income countries. He called on countries that have more jabs than they need to make some available to the COVAX Facility — the U.N.-backed project to get vaccines deployed widely.

“Now, we are also seeing both high- and middle-income countries that are part of COVAX making additional bilateral deals,” he told reporters in Geneva. “This potentially bumps up the price for everyone and means high-risk people in the poorest and most marginalized countries don’t get the vaccine.”

“I urge countries and manufacturers to stop making bilateral deals at the expense of COVAX,” said Tedros, the WHO director-general.

Tedros also urged manufacturers to make the data about their vaccines available, which is needed for the U.N. health agency to be able to provide “emergency use listings” that can expedite their deployment.

The lack of such data “blocks the whole system of procurement and delivery,” he said.

WHO officials, who generally shun finger-pointing at specific countries and companies that they need to work with, did not specify which ones need to do more to help broaden access to vaccines.

But Canada, for example, is known to have far greater access to vaccines that its population needs. And partners Pfizer and BioNTech, which make the first vaccine that received emergency use approval from the WHO and countries like the U.S. and Britain, have not reached a deal to take part in the COVAX...