AMMAN — Jordan has “the right ingredients” to
manufacture a COVID-19 vaccine, but is “missing the catalyst that will bring
everyone together,” Salah Mawajdeh, adviser for government affairs for the
Middle East and North Africa for Hikma Pharmaceuticals, said in an interview
with
Jordan News. اضافة اعلان
“I think it’s the wish of any country to be in the business
of biotechnology in general, not just vaccines,” Mawajdeh, who served as health
minister in two former governments and headed Jordan’s Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) for four years, said.
“But the story is not that simple. Biotechnology is a
complex science, it needs a lot of investment.”
In some ways, Jordan is well-equipped to produce complex
pharmaceutical products like a COVID-19 vaccine, according to Mawajdeh,
pointing out Jordan’s long-lived and successful pharmaceutical industry, which
began in the 1960s.
He also highlighted Jordan’s conducive legislative
environment, strong regulatory body, capable clinical trial system, and
advanced academic institutions.
Still, “to move from an idea to commercialization is a long
process,” according to Mawajdeh.
“We will not manufacture a vaccine in two days,” he said,
pointing out that countries that successfully manufactured vaccines devoted
large amounts of resources to the task.
“If you look at the vaccine market globally, the number of
players is limited, which shows the difficulty. While if you look at the number
of companies that manufacture the prescription drugs we all consume,
antibiotics, etc., you have hundreds or thousands of companies around the world
… it’s like an exclusive club of companies that reached the level of know-how.”
The pundit also explained that manufacturers in Jordan could
start with simpler vaccines — such as the inactivated technology used in the
Sinopharm vaccine — then progress to more complex vaccines, such as the mRNA
vaccines produced by Pfizer-NBiotech and Moderna.
A combination of lack of funding and mismatch between supply
and demand explain the limited vaccines currently available in Jordan,
according to Mawajdeh.
“Jordan and any country similar to it, which is the vast
majority of the globe outside Europe and the United States, will remain in the
wait-and-see stance,” he said.
“You will have to wait. The waiting part i think is the
worst part. The world cannot just wait. Economic and social well-being are
linked; when the economic situation is so tight, there will be social
implications. I don’t think any country will be able to withstand it for long
periods of time.”
However, he noted that the entire world “cannot just wait
for everyone to be vaccinated based on the production plan of let’s say five
companies in the world. It cannot be done.”
Mawajdeh called for regional collaboration to produce a
vaccine by pooling resources. “The economic formula would work if there is
regional collaboration. This is easier said than done. The regional
collaboration has some prerequisites, which we don’t have now, but we need to
work on it if this is the right approach,” he said.
“If you take Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Egypt, even up to
Morocco, none of them reached even 5 percent of immunization. There are so many
other small countries in the region” that do not necessarily have the financial
resources or technical know-how to manufacture a vaccine, Mawajdeh told
Jordan
News.
“Pooling resources together, you can have the right
ingredients for research and development, clinical trials, manufacturing,
operations, and distribution.”
However, “collaboration at the regional level is not easy.
It’s an issue of governance and structure, who puts money, who manages, who
leads, who sits on the board,” he said.
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