Can we do for other essential medicines what we are doing for the COVID-19 vaccine?

Summary box By the beginning of 2021 the world welcomed encouraging news on several candidate vaccines for COVID-19. Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, Oxford/AstraZeneca and the Chinese BBIBP-CorV vaccines are already rolled out in some high-income countries, and other vaccines may follow. While in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs) access is lagging, there are several vaccines with significant potential for fighting the pandemic in those LMICs that need them. For instance, Coronavac, developed by China’s Sinovac Biotech, has been approved in China and is undergoing phase III trials in several LMICs, including Brazil, Indonesia, Bangladesh and the Philippines. By early December, Brazil and Indonesia had received over a million doses of the vaccine. The Sputnik V vaccine has been approved in Russia. The Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine is being rolled out in India. The advantage of these last three vaccines is that they can be transported, stored and delivered using the standard 2°C–8°C cold chain infrastructure (the Pfizer vaccine needs to be kept at −70°C and Moderna at −20°C). Based on currently available information, the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine is also likely to cost less than competitor vaccines, partly because of its different design, but …