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The American laboratory Pfizer announced this Wednesday, during the Davos Economic Forum in Switzerland, that it will supply two dozen products at low cost, including the vaccine and treatment against Covid-19, in 45 of the world’s most impoverished countries as a measure to improve access to these treatments universally.
Access to health, worldwide, is very unequal. The US drugmaker Pfizer aims to improve this situation.
“Unfortunately there is a tremendous gap in health in the world and the initiative seeks to reduce inequalities (…) between the least developed countries and the rest of the world,” said Pfizer president Albert Bourla, announcing the launch on Wednesday. of the “Agreement for a Healthier World” at the Davos Economic Forum, which takes place this week in Switzerland.
The agreement includes 27 low-income and 18 middle-income countries, as classified by the World Bank. Most of the countries are in Africa, but Haiti, Syria, Cambodia and North Korea are also included in the program, where only a small number of medicines and vaccines are available.
Pfizer said its project consists of 23 proprietary treatments and vaccines against infectious diseases, certain types of cancer, and rare and inflammatory conditions that kill nearly a million people each year in these countries.
In addition to ‘Paxlovid’ and ‘Ibrance’, the list includes the vaccine against pneumococcal infection ‘Prevenar 13’; the treatment for inflammatory rheumatism ‘Xeljanz’; the cancer treatments ‘Xalkori’ and ‘Inlyta’; and the vaccine against Covid-19 developed jointly with ‘BioNTech’.
“Everyone should have the same access to medicines and vaccines”
Pfizer also plans to help with public education, training of health professionals, drug supply management and the lack of infrastructure that makes it difficult to access these treatments.
“As we have seen with the Covid-19 crisis, the provision of vaccines is only the first step in helping patients. For the deal to be successful, we will work closely with health authorities in these countries to help identify the best opportunities to ensure medicines and vaccines reach those who need them most,” said Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla.
The US drugmaker has come under fire for its way of distributing the Covid-19 vaccine, with some impoverished countries having to wait months after the first doses arrived in rich countries.
The person in charge of the company pointed out that they continued to work with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. “Everyone, no matter where they live, should have equal access to life-saving medicines and vaccines,” Gates said at Davos.
The leaders of some of these countries celebrate the agreement, such as the President of Rwanda, Paul Kagame, who declared that “fast and affordable access to medicines and vaccines is the key to global equality in health.” Malawi President Lazarus Chakwera added that this agreement “helps low-income countries without violating their dignity.”
Meanwhile, the People’s Vaccine Alliance said in a statement that Pfizer will still leave many middle-income countries “paying through the nose for life-saving drugs they can’t afford” and that pandemic profiteers are no heroes.
With AP, EFE and Reuters
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