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When it came down to vaccines, majority of the world found out that Pharmaceutical companies like Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, (US) and Astrazeneca (UK) are local companies first before they are multinational. The priority was to their home countries or regions. What they offered..
...to others paled in comparison to what they contracted with Western countries. Countries like the UAE and India had to look to Russia and China for vaccines to fill up the gap. It wasn't like they couldn't pay for it, they just were not the priority. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-emirates-russia-idUSKBN29Q17L
Meanwhile in Israel, (said to have the highest % of vaccination in the world), Pfizer was willing to provide enough doses to vaccinate the entire population in exchange for medical data of Israelis. Obviously, exceptions can be made if u can pay the price https://www.npr.org/2021/01/25/960465917/israel-secures-covid-19-vaccine-doses-by-agreeing-to-share-medical-data-on-israe?t=1611828770854
I believe the lesson here for Africa is that we need to develop new or empower existing home grown pharmaceutical organisations so that they can handle drug production and bioTECH covering most of our common health challenges and epidemiology. If the West would not help with...
....technology transfer, we can turn to the East. With AfCFTA, we can create the mechanism that focuses on the African market and ensures an "Africa first before others" philosophy. Covid19 has taught us all a valuable lesson, that globalization means "me first before others".
