Missing in Action

Sanya Oni

If the report that Donald Trump’s America has bought the world’s entire supply of remdesivir, the antiviral drug produced by the US biotechnology company Gilead is any indication of the shape of the global supply chain post Covid-19, countries in the sub-Saharan Africa had better pay attention or prepare for another dark spell long after the pandemic subsides. Recall that the same United States had in March attempted to secure the rights to any coronavirus vaccine developed by German biopharmaceutical firm CureVac for its exclusive use.

Mercifully, the company, while stoutly refusing the bid, followed up with a statement that it was developing a coronavirus vaccine to “help and protect patients worldwide”. The German government, ostensibly, in a fit of Euro-centric rage would add that it was “interested in ensuring that vaccines and active substances against the new coronavirus are also developed in Germany and Europe.”

Before then, India, the world’s largest producer of hydroxychloroquine, actually sought a temporary export ban of the medicine in its bid to preserve domestic stocks. That was to be – until Trump –the same Donald Trump (ironically) – talked Narendra Modi out of the nonsense at the risk of a massive US retaliation!

Trump’s words, although reeking of the typical arrogance of a supremo, left little imagination about what was at stake: “I spoke to him [Modi] Sunday morning, called him, and I said we’d appreciate your allowing our supply to come out. If he doesn’t allow it to come out, that would be OK, but of course, there may be retaliation. Why wouldn’t there be?”, he had stated rather icily.

That was four months back. Between then and now, Covid-19 cases have continued to rise globally, but then, so has the race for the vaccine assumed a frenetic if not a desperate pace.

It had to be. As at the last count, the entire humanity had lost 649,208 souls to the pandemic out of the 16,249, 165 cases; the global economy, meanwhile, has been roiling in the after-effects, which experts reckon would take several years– vaccine or not – to shake off.

Mercifully, the countdown to the long-awaited vaccine has long begun. As at last week, there are, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), 25 candidate vaccines in clinical evaluation with 141 others in preclinical evaluation. Yet, as fierce as the race to get the vaccine out, the scramble for access would appear even more deadly.

The United States government for instance, has after pumping $1.2 billion, secured 300 million doses of the potential AstraZeneca vaccine. Apparently not to be outdone in the acquisition race, the United Kingdom, with three types of vaccine under development, has reportedly, signed a deal with the drug maker, Pfizer for 90 million doses of the latter’s potential vaccine, currently under trial. Germany on its part, in an apparent effort to fob off attempts by foreign interests to take over CureVac, the country leader in the vaccine quest, made clear its plans to take 23 percent stake in the firm.

Surely, we know what this means for everyone. For the drug manufacturers, it guarantees billions of dollars in secured revenue and millions of jobs to be created across their countries vast logistical and manufacturing value chain. As for the rest of the world, they are, for now, free to scramble for whatever is left of the products of other peoples’ intellectual property!

Don’t ask me the place of Big Brother Nigeria in all of these. You know some of the answers already. Whether on the testing front or the vaccine production front, we are, to put it mildly, missing in action. As at 5 pm yesterday, Monday, we have only managed to test 266,323 persons out of which 40,532 cases have been confirmed with 858 dead. This figure – which comes to a mere 53,000 on a monthly average – is supposed to be progress after five clear months into the business of testing!

It is known to be much worse on the vaccine front. At a time when developed countries are already making plans to secure access to vaccines – never mind that these are still at various trial stages – our government, haven’t even begun the elementary process of planning how to access them! Is it, as some have suggested, that the government may be waiting for either the Covax Facility or its partner in the Vaccine Alliance – GAVI, to avail the long-suffering citizens of their so-called guarantee of ‘rapid, fair and equitable access to Covid-19 vaccines worldwide’?

My finding on Nigeria’s place in the global quest for Covid-19 vaccine was even more confounding. With two flagship medical and pharmaceutical research companies – the National Institute for Pharmaceutical Research and Development (NIPRD) and the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research (NIMR), I had somewhat assumed that national vaccine research and development effort would be led by these two foremost institutions. Well, I was wrong!

What do I mean? I have, like other interested Nigerians, been tracking global developments in that particular area. Using the WHO list of contenders earlier referenced, the only Nigerian entity found was (to me) an unlikely one – a certain Helix Biogen Consult, Ogbomoso & Trinity Immonoefficient Laboratory, Ogbomoso, Oyo State, Nigeria – a wholly private entity! We are here talking of a list that has the National Research Centre, Egypt on it!

I have heard it said that the Covid-19 pandemic presents countries with unique opportunities to re-set their development priorities. Very true. But then, this can only be true of countries not only prepared, but equipped to convert the challenges into opportunities. From the economy, to education, to health and to the science and technology sector, whereas the chant across the global community is that the world, after Covid-19, will be a vastly different one, our leaders from those in government, the private sector to the academia have done little else than recycle the same old excuses that brought us to this very pass.

More than the scores of deaths and devastation brought on by the deadly pandemic, our inability to creatively respond to the emerging challenges might yet prove the greatest tragedy of the current season. Trust me, I do not even pretend to speak as a prophet!