Response to announcements by BioNTech and Moderna - People’s Vaccine Alliance

Reacting to BioNTech’s announcement, Anna Marriott, policy lead for the People’s Vaccine Alliance, said:

“After huge public pressure, BioNTech has finally committed to manufacturing vaccines in the Global South. While this is a positive development, it’s far too little, far too late from a company that has made a killing from the pandemic.

“Offering to only start building a facility in Africa in the middle of next year that will produce just 50 million doses – enough for just two percent of the continent’s population – is pittance when just one of their factories in Germany produces more than that each month.

“If BioNTech really wants to change the course of this pandemic, it should immediately share the technology and knowhow for this publicly-funded innovation with the WHO’s technology pool and mRNA hub in South Africa, so that more developing country manufacturers can produce these game-changing vaccines.”

Reacting to Moderna’s announcement, Anna Marriott, policy lead for the People’s Vaccine Alliance, said:

“After having so far delivered zero of their committed doses to COVAX,this new promise by Moderna to deliver at some undefined time 110 million more vaccines is barely worth the paper it is written on.

“This is a publicly funded vaccine and should be available to all as a public good. It is beyond time that the US government step in and insist the vaccine technology is shared immediately with the WHO mRNA technology hub.”

Ends

Notes for editors

For more information please contact Tania Corbett – Tcorbett1@oxfam.org.uk or +44 7824 824 359

Anna Marriot is available for comment.

The People’s Vaccine Alliance report the full report: "A Dose of Reality: How rich countries and pharmaceutical corporations are breaking their vaccine promises" is available here: https://peoplesvaccine.org/g20/

A report last month from Amnesty International found that large pharmaceutical companies, including BioNTech and Moderna, were fuelling an unprecedented human rights crisis through their refusal to waive intellectual property rights and share vaccine technology: https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2021/09/new-report-shows-leading-covid-19-vaccine-pharma-companies-fuelling-unprecedented-human-rights-crisis/