Short AstraZeneca shelf life complicates COVID vaccine rollout to world's poorest countries

Exclusive: Short AstraZeneca shelf life complicates COVID vaccine rollout to world's poorest The relatively short shelf life of AstraZeneca Plc's COVID-19 vaccine is complicating the rollout to the world's poorest nations, according to officials and internal World Health Organization documents reviewed by Reuters. Francesco Guarascio,Jennifer Rigby Reuters

BRUSSELS/LONDON, Feb 16 (Reuters) - The relatively short shelf life of AstraZeneca Plc's (AZN.L) COVID-19 vaccine is complicating the rollout to the world's poorest nations, according to officials and internal World Health Organization documents reviewed by Reuters.

It is the latest headache to plague the COVAX vaccine-sharing project, co-led by the WHO and aimed at getting shots to the world's neediest people.

Initially, poorer countries and COVAX lagged richer countries in securing vaccine supplies, as wealthier nations used their financial might to acquire the first available doses. ...

The need to turn down vaccines with short shelf lives, along with the initial inequality, hesitancy and other barriers, has contributed to a much lower vaccination rate in Africa where only around 10% of people have been immunised, compared with more than 70% in richer nations.

Many vaccines are arriving with only a few months, and sometimes weeks, before their use-by date, adding to the scramble to get shots in arms. Some countries have had to destroy expired doses, including Nigeria which dumped up to 1 million AstraZeneca vaccines in November. read more

The problem with a short shelf life largely concerns AstraZeneca, according to COVAX data and officials.

An internal WHO document reviewed by Reuters detailing vaccine stocks in several central and west African countries for the week ending Feb. 6 highlighted the problem.

Most of the 19 listed African nations had expired AstraZeneca doses, compared to a handful of countries with expired doses from other manufacturers. Of the total expired doses declared by those countries in the week, about 1.3 million were AstraZeneca, 280,000 Johnson & Johnson (JNJ.N), 15,000 Moderna (MRNA.O) and 13,000 Russia's Sputnik, the document shows.

Many more vaccines are expected to be rejected as African nations and COVAX said that from January they would not accept vaccines with less than two-and-a-half months' shelf life. ...