Oh wow, things are accelerating neatly! I was surprised with this piece of news, from a Brazilian newspaper:
https://www.em.com.br/app/noticia/na...onavirus.shtml
It's in Portuguese, a language I do speak, but you guys can use Google Translate, I suppose.
Here's the gist of it:
AstraZeneca has apparently made an agreement with Brazil.
For US$ 127 million, they are passing the technology of their vaccine to Fiocruz, Brazil's main vaccine-making lab. Included in this price, 30.4 million doses of the vaccine, to be delivered in two lots of 15.2 million doses, one in December 2020, and the other one in January 2021. This payment is to be collected now, before the vaccine is fully developed, and found (hopefully) to be safe and efficacious; it's a share-costing deal, in which Brazil agrees to help funding the development and testing of the vaccine, in exchange for getting the technology, and getting their first 30.4 million doses.
This will be followed by 70 million doses, for US$ 2.30 per dose, in case the vaccine is approved as safe and efficacious.
From that point on, Brazil's Fiocruz will make more, on their own.
So, Brazil is risking US$127 million (which they will lose if the vaccine is a fiasco). But on the other hand, if the vaccine is good, then they are securing not only 100.4 million doses, but the ability to make more. Their population is about 220 million people.
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I find this remarkable because AstraZeneca seems pretty sure that they can deliver 15.2 million doses in December and 15.2 million more in January!!!
So fingers crossed, because if this vaccine is safe and efficacious, we may be close to a resolution of this crisis.
I hope the Moderna/NIH vaccine succeeds, and can be delivered with a similar timeline.
I think I heard somewhere that the United States has also reached some deal with AstraZeneca. I don't know/remember the details.
But this is hopeful. And the news also delivers the first firm deal regarding the cost of the vaccine: US$2.30. Pretty affordable!