High-income countries hosting COVID-19 vaccine trials receive more doses
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Among countries hosting COVID-19 vaccine trials, higher income countries have received proportionally more doses of authorized COVID-19 vaccines, making it easier for them to vaccinate their population, a study found.
Reshma Ramachandran, MD, MPP, a postdoctoral fellow at Yale School of Medicine, and colleagues conducted a cross-sectional study of COVID-19 vaccines labeled for emergency use by WHO as of Sept. 7. They reported trial completion dates, phases and country locations for each vaccine using ClinicalTrials.gov, and then classified each country by its national income group through World Bank classifications.
A total of six COVID-19 vaccines were listed for emergency use and tested in 25 countries, according to the study. Among 11 high-income countries, 10 (90.9%) authorized the tested vaccines and received enough doses to vaccinate a median of 51.7% (interquartile range [IQR], 39.4%-76.7%) of their population aged 15 years and older. Comparitively, lower middle- and upper middle-income countries had median vaccination rates of 31% (IQR, 18.1%-37.6%) and 14.9% (IQR, 7.2%-48.6%), respectively, despite high rates of authorization.
Ramachandran and colleagues found that the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access initiative (COVAX) delivered a median of 15.4%, 48.8% and 78.8% of doses to low-, lower middle, and upper middle-income countries, respectively.
“Wealth-based access inequities among countries hosting trials parallel general disparities in COVID-19 vaccine access, as high-income countries have successfully procured and administered doses ahead of low- and middle-income countries,” the authors wrote.
In related editorial, Gavin Yamey, MD, MPH, MA, associate director for policy at the Duke Global Health Institute, and colleagues said “rich nations ... used their power to enter into bilateral deals with vaccine manufacturers, leading to monopolization of the supply and hoarding of excess doses that sometimes have ended up being wasted.”
The findings in Ramachandran and colleagues’ study are important, Yamey and colleagues wrote, because “the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that everyone has the right ‘to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.’”
References:
Ramachandran R, et al. JAMA Netw Open. 2021;doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.34233.
Yamey G, et al. JAMA Netw Open. 2021;doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.34455.
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