5. How should the world pay for a COVID-19 vaccine?
#OHEAnnualLectur
“
6. #OHEAnnualLecture
Acknowledgements
• Co-author of the paper Isobel Firth of the OHE
• Kalipso Chalkidou, Rachel Silverman and Ganesh Ramakrishnan
from the Center for Global Development, and Hannah Kettler from
PATH
• My OHE colleagues
• All errors of fact and analysis, and the value judgements
(especially those you disagree with) are my responsibility alone
7. My Agenda
Our objective and context
An analytical framework
The challenges of COVID-19
Exploring AMC proposals
Putting it all together
Lessons for the future
8. The COVID-19 vaccine wish list
one or more vaccines that work (at least for the most vulnerable)
vaccines developed and manufactured as quickly as possible
the ability to manufacture and deliver these vaccines at scale for
populations across the world
Affordable and cost-effective, i.e. a good use of scarce resources, in
very different health care settings around the world
What is our objective?
#OHEAnnualLectur
9. What is the global context?
COVID-19 is causing a health and economic disaster
Source: John Hopkins
Source: World Bank
An effective COVID-19 vaccine
can provide massive health
and economic benefit for the
world
#OHEAnnualLectur
11. My Agenda
Our objective and context
An analytical framework
The challenges of COVID-19
Exploring AMC proposals
Putting it all together
Lessons for the future
12. We can distinguish between ‘push’ and ‘pull’ funding
Product
launched
R&D begins
Push funding
reduces scientific
risk
Pull funding
reduces
commercial risk
Development process
$$
• In HICs, buying power in the
market ‘pulls’ investment through
development, manufacture and
distribution
• In LICs buying power of donors
‘pulls’ investment through
• For some diseases, where the HIC
market is small, we see ‘push’ and
‘pull’ funding
• There has been a debate as to the
appropriate balance of push and
pull funding
These funding types can be used to overcome different kinds of risk
#OHEAnnualLectur
13. ‘Push’ and ‘pull’ have been used in practice
Push & pull funding was
used to develop an Ebola
vaccine and maintain a
vaccine stockpile
A mixture of push and pull funding was used to develop an Ebola vaccine
#OHEAnnualLecturSource: WHO Afro
An advanced purchase
commitment between Gavi and
Merck in 2016 enabled the
development of a stockpile of
500,000 doses of the vaccine
which was deployed during the
2019 Ebola outbreak in the
Democratic Republic of Congo.
14. #OHEAnnualLectur
The pneumococcal AMC was a pilot of a new concept
Quantity/time
Vaccine
price per
treatment
Tail
price
AMC
Diagram adapted from MVI Advanced Market Commitment for Malaria Vaccines
It was used by Gavi to test the concept of an advanced market commitment
The pneumococcal vaccine was already
developed for HICs, the AMC was
designed to deliver the vaccine to LICs.
$1.5 billion was raised by 6 donor
countries towards vaccines produced by
2 suppliers
A 3rd supplier has now entered
More than 150 million children have
been immunised, saving an estimated
700,000 lives
15. What does the vaccine context look like with this analytical framework?
We can group the COVID-19 schemes into ‘push’ and ‘pull’
COVAX
Operation
Warp Speed ACT
Accelerator
BBAMC
CEPI
EU joint
procurement
Gates
UK
Government
PUSH
PULL
Accelerating
HT
MIX
#OHEAnnualLectur
16. My Agenda
Our objective and context
An analytical framework
The challenges of COVID-19
Exploring AMC proposals
Putting it all together
Lessons for the future
17. #OHEAnnualLectur
It is not easy to develop a vaccine. Full stop.
We don’t have a
vaccine for HIV
We only recently got
malaria vaccine but
with limited efficacy
We have a very
limited vaccine for
TB
We don’t have brilliant vaccines for the top 3 infectious disease killers
18. #OHEAnnualLectur
• Coronaviruses do not generally induce
long-term immunity.
• The vaccine needs to generate
immunity in older people which is
difficult.
• There may be safety concerns around
vaccine-induced enhancement with
coronaviruses.
It is not easy to develop a vaccine. Full stop.
Developing a COVID-19 vaccine may be especially complicated
19. #OHEAnnualLectur
It is not easy to develop a vaccine. Full stop.
It’s hard to get portfolio diversification
a bunch of mediocre vaccines, each
with a mere 10 per cent chance of
working, but they were likely to fail
for entirely different reasons…If we
put 20 into trials, there is a near 90 per
cent chance of at least one success.
“
20. #OHEAnnualLectur
It is not easy to develop a vaccine. Full stop.
It’s hard to get portfolio diversification
Contrast this with a set of excellent
vaccine candidates, each with a 40
per cent chance of working, but all
likely to fail for the same reason.
Here, we would be stuck with a 60 per
cent chance of failure no matter how
many we tried
“
21. #OHEAnnualLectur
It is not easy to develop a vaccine. Full stop.
It’s hard to get portfolio diversification
If we look at the Covid-19 front-
runners, individually rational
choices may have concentrated risk
in terms of the vaccine platforms that
are being used and the specific pieces
of viral machinery targeted. ... An overt
move towards diversity is necessary,
even if individual projects look less
attractive
“
22. There are currently 13 candidates in clinical development
Candidates are being developed by teams in academia, biotech & large pharmaceutical
companies
Pre-clinical Phase I Phase 2 Phase 3
mRNA-1273
Moderna & NIAID
BNT162
BioNTech & Pfizer
INO-4800
Inovio
Pharmaceuticals
AZD1222
University of
Oxford &
AstraZeneca
Ad5-nCoV
CanSino Biologics
Unnamed
Wuhan Institute of
Biological Products and
SinoPharm
Unnamed
Beijing Institute of
Biological Products and
SinoPharm
PiCoVacc
Sinovac
Unnamed
Institute of Medical Biology and
Chinese Academy of Medical
Sciences
NVX-CoV2373
Novavax
129 candidates
Unnamed
Gamaleya Research
Institute
saRNA vaccine
Imperial College
London
Unname
d
CureVac
Source: WHO. Correct as of June 22nd 2020
#OHEAnnualLectur
23. #OHEAnnualLectur
Estimates suggest we need 1.5
billion doses in the short term
and a further 14 billion doses in
the medium term (up to 2026).
Global demand for a COVID-19 vaccine is unprecedented
24. High
variability
High fixed and
ongoing costs
Low
fungibility
Long lead-
times
#OHEAnnualLectur
vaccines are often
manufactured
through variable
biological
processes
a facility can cost
between $50M and
$500M. Quality
checking and raw
materials are
expensive
vaccine
manufacturing
technology is
traditionally
bespoke to one
vaccine product
a lot can take
between 6 months
and 3 years to
manufacture
depending on the
complexity of the
vaccine.
Vaccine manufacturing presents a significant challenge
Manufacturing is even more complex for COVID-19
25. My Agenda
Our objective and context
An analytical framework
The challenges of covid-19
Exploring AMC proposals
Putting it all together
Lessons for the future
26. #OHEAnnualLectur
The Covid-19 Vaccine Global Access Facility (COVAX)
Attribute COVAX
Incentivise private capital to invest
in development
No, push needed
Incentivise private capital to invest
in manufacturing capacity
No, push needed
Contingent Advance Purchase
contracts
Yes
Advance Market Commitment No (Phase 1 is not a market
commitment, planned phase 2
includes unspecified market
commitment)
Incentivise follow-on vaccines Only if AMC component put in place
Countries to participate LICs, LMICs but HICs, MLICs welcome
Quality hurdle WHO TPP
Cost-based Pricing Yes, flat price (allows for other options
after first 12 months)
Value-based pricing No
Differential pricing Reference to tiered pricing
Account taken of push funding Yes, in price
Donor support for LICs / LMICs Yes
Prioritising allocations of vaccines Secretariat
COVAX is a procurement mechanism mainly for low-income countries
Tail
price
COVAX
Facility
price
per
vaccine
Quantity/time
Bilateral
Contract
Bilateral
Contract
Bilateral
Contract
Bilateral
Contract
Bilateral
Contract
Bilateral
Contract
Bilateral
Contract
Bilateral
Contract
27. #OHEAnnualLectur
Benefit-Based Advanced Market Commitment (BBAMC)
Price/
volume
Price/
volume
Price/
volume
Quantity
Quantity
Quantity
BBAMC
Tail price
BBAMC
Tail price
BBAMC Tail price
High-
income
Middle-
income
low-
income
Market
commitment
Attribute BBAMC
Incentivise private capital to invest
in development
Yes but compatible with Push
Incentivise private capital to invest
in manufacturing capacity
Yes, but separate push needed also
Contingent Advance Purchase
contracts
No
Advance Market Commitment Yes
Incentivise follow-on vaccines Yes, a major objective is to have
more than one vaccine
Countries to participate HICs, MICs, LICs (via Gavi) to give
overall market commitment
Quality hurdle WHO TPP, with a minimum and
maximum for setting value-based
prices
Cost-based Pricing No, except for the LIC/ LMIC tail-price
Value-based pricing Yes, using HTA to assess value
Differential pricing Yes, prices reflect local HTA and
affordability results
Account taken of push funding Yes, in price, or reduced volume
commitment
Donor support for LICs / LMICs Yes
Prioritising allocations of vaccines Pre-agreed, implemented by the
Secretariat
BBAMC can address some of the limitations of COVAX
28. Context
The buying mechanism
Who is buying?
Exploring the proposals
What does industry think?
Putting it all together
Lessons for the future
29. #OHEAnnualLectur
Normal
business
paradigm
COVID-19
paradigm
A tale of two paradigms
During normal business governments set value-based prices and industry invests at risk
• The market pulls products
through
• Investment will lead to a return
if the product improves health
enough
• Price will reflect value rather
than cost
High income countries
Low & Middle income
countries
• Vaccines delivered through
tiered or differential pricing
• Donor led pull needed for
LICs
• Push and pull for vaccines
with no HIC market
30. Normal
business
paradigm
COVID-19
paradigm
A tale of two paradigms
During covid-19 governments invest in all sectors and industry is expected to deliver
products not-for-profit
High income countries
Low & Middle income
countries
• Governments investing in
• all stages of vaccine
development /
manufacture
• Companies offering to supply
at cost
• Donors identifying
importance of finding
resources to supply LICs
• MICs falling through the gaps
• Current lack of global
coordination and
commitment
• the market pulls products
through
• Investment will lead to a
return if the product improves
health
• Price will reflect value rather
than cost
High income countries
Low & Middle income
countries
• Vaccines delivered at cost
through tiered or differential
pricing
• There is no credible
mechanism to develop
vaccines where there is no
HIC market
#OHEAnnualLectur
31. COVID-19
paradigm
A tale of two paradigms
What is missing from the COVID-19 paradigm?
Governments invest
directly and industry is
expected to deliver
products not-for-profit
• Greater global co-operation and a
move away from vaccine
nationalism
• To get more private capital
mobilised
In relation to the COVAX Facility
• To move from cost to value
• To use HTA to ensure benefits
exceed costs
• To move from bilateral contingent
contracts to creation of a market
We need:
#OHEAnnualLectur
32. Reward
Timing
˃2 Years
˂2 Years
Cost Value
BBAMC for
second wave
of vaccines
push +
COVAX
• Reward vaccine value
• Ensure benefit
exceeds costs
• Move from bilateral
contingent contracts
to a market
?
How can the BBAMC can be implemented for COVID-19?
COVAX can be adapted or BBAMC run in parallel to pull candidates through
Parallel
BBAMC
COVAX
incorporating
BBAMC reforms
#OHEAnnualLectur
33. Context
The buying mechanism
Who is buying?
Exploring the proposals
What does industry think?
Putting it all together
Lessons for the future
34. What can we learn for the next pandemic?
#OHEAnnualLectur
We need to avoid the same mistakes being made in the COVID-19 vaccine effort
We need to develop market mechanisms for pandemic
preparedness
Distributive issues can only be overcome by planning in
advance
Financing arrangements can be pre-agreed and triggered
35. What is the global context?
COVID-19 is causing a health and economic disaster
Source: John Hopkins
Source: World Bank
Let us wish success to those in
academia and in industry involved in
researching, developing, or planning
the manufacture of a COVID-19
vaccine
#OHEAnnualLectur
- High Process Variability
vaccines are often manufactured through biological processes using raw materials also produced through biological processes
High Cost
manufacturing has high fixed costs (a facility can cost between $50M and $500M) and high ongoing costs (QA and raw materials are expensive)
Low Fungibility
vaccine manufacturing technology is traditionally bespoke to one vaccine product. A flu vaccine facility can’t switch to produce HPV.
Long lead-times
a lot can take between 6 months and 3 years to manufacture depending on the complexity of the vaccine.