According to the Medicine Quality Research Group, Centre of Tropical Medicine & Global Health, Nuffield Department of Medicine and the University of Oxford’s Medical Product Quality Report – COVID-19 vaccine issues from March 2021, between 12th March 2020 and 5 th March 2021 76 reports of diverted or SF COVID-19 vaccines from 28 countries appeared in the press.
When the vaccines were stated as unauthorised copies of approved vaccines, they were copies of products from Pfizer/BioNTech, AstraZeneca, Sinovac, Sinopharm, Moderna, and were reported from 10 countries (Australia, Brazil, China, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Philippines, USA, Ukraine) and online.
Up to 5 th March 2021, were identified nine public domain reports of diverted COVID-19 vaccines, compared to only two reports in the previous issue. Inequitable access is highly likely to fuel an increase in such incidents, negating the global good on health and economy of these remarkable vaccines.
In 2020 22 reports were published compared to 54 in 2021. Nine of the reports deal with diverted vaccines and four with issues of degradation. Unauthorised copies of approved COVID-19 vaccines of the Pfizer/BioNTech, AstraZeneca, Sinovac, Sinopharm, Moderna.
The Medicine Quality Research Group, Centre of Tropical Medicine & Global Health, Nuffield Department of Medicine and the University of Oxford have released their latest Medical Product Quality Report – COVID-19 vaccine issues, with results from February 2021.
Between 12th March 2020 and 10th February 2021 the report found 45 reports of apparently substandard or falsified COVID-19 vaccines from 14 countries.
The study highlights that inequitable access to vaccines is highly likely to fuel an increase in such incidents, negating the global good on health and economy of these vaccines. It is therefore urgent to join-up interventions to reduce the risk of SF COVID-19 vaccines on global public health, through significant enhancements in global capacity for their prevention, detection and response.
