Rich countries like Switzerland should do more to help poorer countries fight the global pandemic, according to Thomas Cueni, President of the Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA)
Cueni says that the only way out of the pandemic is if everyone is vaccinated, adding that problems with distribution, not production, have led to poorer countries being unable to vaccinate their people.
He is urging Switzerland to become more involved with the Covax Initiative, which aims to accelerate the development and manufacture of COVID-19 vaccines and to guarantee fair and equitable access for every country in the world.
Cueni says that global pharmaceutical companies are capable of manufacturing 11 billion doses of the Covid vaccine by the end of 2021. He says that the disparity of access to the vaccine between rich and poor countries is unacceptable.
As a comparison, Switzerland has purchased enough vaccines for its entire population and approved vaccination for adolescents, whereas Haiti has less than 0.1 vaccine doses per 100 inhabitants. Many countries in Africa, Asia and the Middle East are also facing a vaccine shortage.
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