Kenya is cannot afford COVID-19 vaccine at Sh300 per dose, the subsidised price set by one appointed distributor from India making it one of the 92 poor countries that will need to be helped through a further reduced price.
If any of the nine candidate vaccines is approved, it will then be distributed at highly reduced price around the globe through an initiative led by Gavi, an alliance based in Geneva that helps poor countries access vaccines.
According to a list provided by Gavi, only South Africa and Botswana have publicly said they can afford the Sh300 per dose price in Africa while Kenya is among the 92 developing countries that need help to buy millions of doses for the population.
“These countries will have limited resources to access future Covid-19 vaccines: it is our duty to support them,” Gavi board chairman Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said in a statement
Vaccine candidate developed by Oxford university will need to be administered twice for a year-long protection and Gavi has asked countries that can pay to confirm by August 31 and make full payments by October 9 to give the manufacturers enough time to prepare.
The top candidate vaccine does not include Sputnik V, the world’s first coronavirus vaccine produced by Russia, which Western scientists claim has not been adequately tested.
Gavi has identified nine candidates to be financed through its Covid-19 Vaccine Global Access Facility (Covax Facility).
The vaccines are AstraZeneca/University of Oxford, UK (Phase III), USA’s Inovio (phase II), Novavax (Phase II), Moderna (Phase III) , France’s Institut Pasteur (preclinical), CureVac of Germany (Phase I), University of Queensland, Australia (Phase I), University of Hong Kong (Preclinical), and Clover Biopharmaceuticals, China (Phase I).
