供应延迟命中计划的埃博拉疫苗库存

Supply chain delays must be addressed to speed up creation of a stockpile of vaccines against deadly埃博拉病毒disease, researchers say.

Once it is fully operational, low and lower middle-income countries will be able to access the stockpile of 500,000 doses free of charge along with support for operational costs for the rollout of immunisation programmes, the vaccine alliance Gavi and partners announced Tuesday.

However, international organisations warned it could take up to three years to reach the target.

“通过为所有国家使用500,000剂埃博拉疫苗的库存，我们可以帮助防止生命损失，并在未来迅速结束埃博拉病毒爆发，”

Gavi CEO Seth Berkley

The new Ebola vaccine was used to tackle a two-year long outbreak in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, which was declared over last June after 300,000 people were immunised.

The injectable Ervebo vaccine (rVSV-ZEBOV-GP), manufactured by Merck, Sharp & Dohme (MSD) Corp., is effective against the most common Zaire strain of the virus. It has been approved by eight African countries following a fast-tracked资格预审过程by the World Health Organization (WHO), certifying its safety and efficacy.

加维说，股票将包括持牌剂量的Ervebo，该剂量也已获得欧洲和美国监管机构的批准。

库存将安置在瑞士的巴塞尔，并由international coordinating organisation, comprising UN agencies the WHO and UNICEF, and aid agencies Doctors Without Borders (MSF) and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC).

世卫组织说，应一个国家的要求，制造商可以将疫苗与超冷的链条包装一起提供，以进行紧急响应。

However, MSF warned that there were currently only 6,890 doses available because of “supply bottlenecks” and said it could take up to three years for the 500,000 target to be met. The WHO also said it could take two to three years.

David Heymann, of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said: “The challenge for the Ebola stockpile is to have enough vaccine immediately ready to roll out – hopefully there will be more vaccines to add to the stockpile in the future.”

He stressed that the vaccine was only licensed for the Zaire Ebola strain and may not work effectively for other strains.

美国国际发展机构（USAID）的2000万美元捐款将资助第一批剂量。

Since Ebola outbreaks are relatively rare and unpredictable, there is no natural market for the vaccine, the WHO explained.

Gavi said it had created “strong incentives” for vaccine manufacturers through an advance purchasing commitment to procure doses once they were prequalified by the WHO.

Development of the Ebola vaccine was expedited following the 2013-2016 epidemic in West Africa, which left more than 11,300 dead in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Guyguy Manangama, head of the Ebola response at MSF, who worked on the last Ebola outbreak in the DRC, said vaccination was one of the most effective ways of fighting Ebola epidemics and the stockpile would allow rapid deployment in endemic areas, but added it “should not limit efforts for the development of other vaccine candidates”.

“有必要确保对该股票进行良好的补充体系，以免在流行病的关键时期处理地面上断，以继续研究，以便根据环境改善和适应冷链，以便他说，不需要复杂的冷链，更稳定的疫苗。”他说。

COVID-19

加维首席执行官塞思·伯克利（Seth Berkley）表示，埃博拉疫苗“为对Covid-19的快速发展和生产疫苗的生产树立了先例”。

Gavi is also jointly leading the COVAX programme with the WHO, aimed at procuring and ensuring equitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines.

“通过为所有国家使用500,000剂埃博拉疫苗的库存，我们可以帮助防止生命损失，并在未来迅速结束埃博拉病毒爆发，”Berkley added.

Marianne Comparet, director of the London-based International Society for Neglected Tropical Diseases, was optimistic, despite the time it will take to reach the full stockpile.

“The fact that such major organisations have partnered together on this will ensure accelerated scrutiny, at the highest level and in-field, of the supply-chain bottlenecks,” she said.

A spokesman for MSD said the company was working closely with the WHO on replenishment and supply of the vaccine.

“We are moving swiftly to manufacture licensed doses of Ervebo, and this can take appropriate time. In the interim, we have been committed to continuing to provide investigational doses for outbreak response,” he said.