Even as Covid drug makers are posting record profits, the
lifesaving treatments often remain out of reach for the poor, the World Health
Organisation said.
According to the WHO, reported cases and deaths from Covid-19
are continuing to decline globally, with reported weekly deaths at their lowest
since March 2020.
"But these trends... don't tell the full story,"
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Wednesday.
He noted that Omicron sub-variants, including the BA.4 and BA.5, are driving an
increase in reported cases in the Americas and Africa.
"It's too soon to know whether these new sub-variants
can cause more severe disease than other Omicron sub-variants, but early data
suggest vaccination remains protective against severe disease and death,"
Ghebreyesus said.
As in the beginning of the pandemic, the high prices of the
vaccines keep the poor out of reach of the essential jabs, he said.
While, "manufacturers are posting record profits"
the WHO chief lamented that ..."low availability and high prices have led
some countries to rule out buying these life-saving treatments".
Calling it a "moral failing" Ghebreyesus said that
"we cannot accept prices that make life-saving treatments available to the
rich and out of reach for the poor".
US drug maker Pfizer, this week, posted a revenue of $25.7
billion for the first quarter, up 77 per cent from the year-ago period. While
Covid vaccine took $13.2 billion, a further $1.5bn came from Paxlovid, a Covid
pill for people who are at high risk of severe disease.
Similarly, rival Moderna's first-quarter vaccine sales more
than tripled at $6 billion over the same period last year, when it reported
$1.7 billion in sales. The US biotech company has reported $3.66 billion in net
income for the quarter, a threefold increase over the $1.2 billion it reported
a year earlier. Both drugakers have also maintained their full-year sales
forecast for the Covid vaccine at $21 billion.
Ghebreyesus added that the highly effective antivirals such
as Pfizer's Paxlovid "are still not accessible to people in low- and
middle-income countries," even as reports claim that nearly 600,000
courses of the highly effective Covid pill are piled up unused in the US.
"Coupled with low investment in early diagnosis, it is
simply not acceptable that in the worst pandemic in a century, innovative
treatments that can save lives are not reaching those that need them.
"We're playing with a fire that continues to burn
us," he warned.
The global health body chief blamed "a combination of
lack of political commitment, operational capacity problems, financial
constraints and hesitancy due to misinformation and disinformation," that
is limiting demand for vaccines.
Besides vaccinating at least 70 per cent of the population of
every country -- including 100 per cent of the most at-risk groups, Ghebreyesus
also called for boosting "testing and sequencing". He said it remains
crucial to understand "how the virus is mutating" to "know
what's coming next".