Equitable Vaccine Distribution: Pfizer's RSV Vaccine Might Face Some Delivery Challenges for Low Income Countries

Pfizer Inc PFE committed to better equitable access after being criticized for prioritizing wealthy nations for the COVID-19 vaccine early in the pandemic. 

The company, in a Reuters report, said it wants to shorten a timeline in which poorer countries often get vaccines many years after they are available elsewhere.

The U.S. pharma giant received a $28 million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in September to support launching the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine in poorer countries.

Pfizer's maternal RSV vaccine is expected to be approved for use in pregnant women in May in the U.S. and several months later in Europe, though the PDUFA date is August 2023. The company plans to launch the product in both markets in the fall. 

The RSV vaccine will need a different delivery system for developing countries in Africa and Asia, including alternative packaging and syringes. 

According to the World Health Organization and the company, preparations for those modifications are just beginning - which is likely to push delivery back by several years.

"They could have tried sooner," said Erin Sparrow, WHO's technical officer for the RSV vaccine, referring to Pfizer. "It's a little bit disappointing, but they are doing the right thing now."

In an interview last month, Pfizer's head of vaccines R&D, Annaliesa Anderson, said the company still aimed to make its vaccine – the first of its kind – available for pregnant women in low-income countries more or less in the "same time frame" as in wealthy countries.

It had pledged last May to offer its existing portfolio, as well as newly developed drugs and vaccines, at a not-for-profit basis to 45 lower-income countries on a faster timeline than in the past.