While world’s poorest countries remain largely unvaccinated
New figures from the Peoples Vaccine Alliance reveal that the companies behind two of the most successful COVID-19 vaccines —Pfizer, BioNTech and Moderna— are making combined profits of $65,000 every minute. The figures based on the latest company reports are released as CEOs from pharmaceutical industry meet for the annual STAT summit —the equivalent of a ‘Big Pharma Davos’— from 16-18 November.
These companies have sold the majority of doses to rich countries, leaving low-income countries out in the cold. Pfizer and BioNTech have delivered less than one percent of their total vaccine supplies to low-income countries, while Moderna has delivered just 0.2 percent. Meanwhile 98 percent of people in low income countries have not been fully vaccinated. Maaza Seyoum of the African Alliance and People’s Vaccine Alliance Africa said:
- “It is obscene that just a few companies are making millions of dollars in profit every single hour, while just two percent of people in low-income countries have been fully vaccinated against coronavirus."
- “Pfizer, BioNTech and Moderna have used their monopolies to prioritise the most profitable contracts with the richest governments, leaving low income countries out in the cold.”
Despite receiving public funding of over $8 billion, the three corporations have refused calls to urgently transfer vaccine technology and know-how with capable producers in low- and middle-income countries via the World Health Organisation (WHO), a move that could increase global supply, drive down prices and save millions of lives. In Moderna’s case, this is despite explicit pressure from the White House and requests from the WHO that the company collaborate in and help accelerate its plan to replicate the Moderna vaccine for wider production at its mRNA hub in South Africa.
Pharmaceutical companies reaping immoral profits from Covid vaccines yet paying low tax rates
Moderna, BioNTech and Pfizer cashing in thanks to taxpayer investments, monopolies, and low taxes while leaving millions unprotected
Moderna, BioNTech, and Pfizer are reaping astronomical and unconscionable profits due to their monopolies of mRNA COVID vaccines — upwards of 69% profit margins in the case of Moderna and BioNTech — while Moderna and Pfizer are also paying little in taxes, campaigners from the People’s Vaccine Alliance said today.
Thanks to their patent monopolies for successful vaccines against the coronavirus, development of which was supported by $100 billion in public funding from taxpayers in the US, Germany, and other countries, the three corporations earned more than $26 billion in revenue in the first half of the year, at least two-thirds of it as pure profit in the case of Moderna and BioNTech. The Alliance also estimates that the three corporations are over-charging, pricing vaccines by as much as $41 billion above the estimated cost of production. Robbie Silverman, Oxfam America’s private sector engagement manager, says:
- “Big Pharma’s business model—receive billions in public investments, charge exorbitant prices for life-saving medicines, pay little tax—is gold dust for wealthy investors and corporate executives but devastating for global public health.
- “Instead of partnering with governments and other qualified manufacturers to make sure that we have enough vaccine doses for everyone, these pharmaceutical companies prioritize their own profits by enforcing their monopolies and selling to the highest bidder. Enough is enough—we must start putting people before profits.”
Even as vast regions of the world experience a rapid rise in COVID cases and deaths, Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna have sold more than 90 percent of their vaccines to rich countries, charging up to 24 times the potential cost of production, according to analysis by the Alliance based on work by MRNA scientists at Imperial college. Analysis of production techniques for the leading mRNA type vaccines produced by Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna, which were only developed thanks to public funding to the tune of $8.3 billion, suggest these vaccines could be made for as little as $1.20 a dose.
Pfizer, BioNTech, Moderna making $1,350 profit every second
The companies have sold the vast majority of their doses to rich countries, leaving low-income nations in the lurch. PHOTO: REUTERS
Pfizer, BioNTech and Moderna are making combined profits of US$65,000 (S$88,000) every minute from their highly successful Covid-19 vaccines while the world's poorest countries remain largely unvaccinated, according to a new analysis.
The companies have sold the vast majority of their doses to rich countries, leaving low-income nations in the lurch, said the People's Vaccine Alliance (PVA), a coalition campaigning for wider access to Covid-19 vaccines, which based its calculations on the firms' own earnings reports. The alliance estimates that the trio will make pre-tax profits of US$34 billion this year between them, which works out to over US$1,000 a second, US$65,000 a minute or US$93.5 million a day. Ms Maaza Seyoum of the African Alliance and People's Vaccine Alliance Africa said:
- "It is obscene that just a few companies are making millions of dollars in profit every single hour, while just 2 per cent of people in low-income countries have been fully vaccinated against the coronavirus,"
- "Pfizer, BioNTech and Moderna have used their monopolies to prioritise the most profitable contracts with the richest governments, leaving low-income countries out in the cold."
Pfizer and BioNTech have delivered less than 1 per cent of their total supplies to low-income countries while Moderna has delivered just 0.2 per cent, the PVA said. Currently, 98 per cent of people in low-income countries have not been fully vaccinated.
Dose of Reality: How rich countries and pharmaceutical corporations are breaking their vaccine promises
From the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, public health officials and scientists warned that only global approaches to fighting the pandemic could succeed. World leaders promised any successful vaccine would be a global public good. “No one is safe until everyone is safe,” is the mantra, yet pharmaceutical corporations and rich country governments persistently pursue the opposite.
Despite international efforts to establish collaborative technology sharing and equitable allocation of COVID-19 vaccines, G7 countries and the European Union (EU) have instead hoarded many more doses than they need. Pharmaceutical corporations have sold their available doses to the highest bidder in pursuit of record-breaking profits. In recent months, to justify its hoarding, the G7 and the EU have made headline-seeking promises to assist low- and middle-income countries by donating doses—yet have repeatedly delayed or broken these promises. During the UN General Assembly in September 2021, the United States convened a vaccine-focused summit to build momentum to reach the goal of vaccinating 70 percent of every country’s population by September 2022. The 70 percent target is the right one but delaying until September 2022 to achieve it is too slow for those currently left behind. Furthermore, there remains no plan to deliver on this target. Instead of a plan is yet another promise to buy vaccines from multinational corporations and donate them next year. The promise, along other dose sharing promises by governments, are more examples of ineffective and inadequate charity and a missed opportunity to transform the global response.
At the UN General Assembly one year prior in September 2020, sixteen multinational pharmaceutical corporations based primarily in the U.S. and European Union, including AstraZeneca, Johnson and Johnson, and Pfizer, signed a declaration with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to “support equitable and affordable distribution globally. Today, we have a split-screen reality of runaway profits of pharmaceutical corporations and accelerating deaths in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).
From Pfizer to Moderna: who's making billions from Covid-19 vaccines?
The companies in line for the biggest gains – and the shareholders who have already made fortunes
The arrival of Covid-19 vaccines promises a return to more normal life – and has created a global market worth tens of billions of dollars in annual sales for some pharmaceutical companies. Among the biggest winners will be Moderna and Pfizer – two very different US pharma firms which are both charging more than $30 per person for the protection of their two-dose vaccines. While Moderna was founded just 11 years ago, has never made a profit and employed just 830 staff pre-pandemic, Pfizer traces its roots back to 1849, made a net profit of $9.6bn last year and employs nearly 80,000 staff.
But other drugmakers, such as the British-Swedish AstraZeneca and the US pharma Johnson & Johnson, have pledged to provide their vaccines on a not-for-profit basis until the pandemic comes to an end. Whether the market remains a money-spinner in the future depends on whether the vaccines become the type that need just a one-off shot – as for measles – or if regular vaccinations will be required, such as for flu. But in the immediate future, there are big financial returns up for grabs.
Here, we look at who is in line for the biggest gains – and which shareholders have already made fortunes:
- Pfizer/BioNTech mRNA vaccine
- Moderna mRNA vaccine
- Johnson & Johnson Adenovirus vaccine
- AstraZeneca Adenovirus vector vaccine
- Sinovac Inactivated virus vaccine
- Gamaleya Institute Adenovirus vaccine
- Novavax Recombinant protein vaccine
- CureVac mRNA vaccine
Pfizer, Moderna will rake in a combined $93 billion next year on COVID-19 vaccine sales
Messenger RNA vaccine makers Pfizer and Moderna will continue to dominate the COVID-19 market in 2022, accounting for a combined $93 billion in sales, says analytics group Airfinity. (Kunal Mahto/iStock/Getty Images Plus/Getty Images)
If you think Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna are making a fortune on COVID-19 vaccine sales this year, just wait for 2022. The messenger RNA shot producers are projected to break the bank next year, generating combined sales of $93.2 billion, nearly twice the amount they are expected to rake in this year, says Airfinity. The health data analytics group puts total market sales for COVID-19 vaccines in 2022 at $124 billion, according to data seen by The Financial Times.
Pfizer vaccine sales will reach $54.5 billion in 2022 and Moderna’s will hit $38.7 billion, Airfinity predicts. The estimates blow the consensus figures of $23.6 billion for Pfizer and $20 billion for Moderna out of the water. “The numbers are unprecedented,” Rasmus Beck Hansen, CEO of Airfinity, told the Financial Times. Sales of the mRNA shots will continue to escalate in 2022 through booster use and countries stockpiling to protect against variants, Airfinity said. Pfizer will generate 64% of its sales and Moderna 75% of its from high-income countries in 2022, the analysts believe.
While the figures may be astonishing, sales of the vaccines have already surprised even their producers. After predicting in April that it would generate $26 billion in vaccine sales this year, Pfizer boosted the figure to $33.5 billion when reporting second-quarter results. At the same time, Bernstein analyst Ronny Gal said the company could ring up an additional $10 billion in vaccine sales in 2021.
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COVID-19 vaccine players will split $100B in sales and $40B in profits, with Moderna leading the way: analyst
Moderna's $30 billion market cap implies it will sell more than 2 billion doses of its COVID-19 vaccine, Evercore ISI analysts said. (Moderna)
The analyst predicted in a note that the total market for COVID-19 vaccines would be worth $100 billion in sales and $40 billion in post-tax profits. He assumed frontrunner Moderna would supply about 40% of the market, Novavax would take 20% and the other vaccine developers would split the rest. “One could look at the field under this base scenario and conclude it is reasonably valued in total,” he wrote. But the Evercore ISI predictions included some assumptions that investors questioned, particularly about Moderna. Schimmer estimated that at a price of $35 a dose, a 50% profit margin and a 20% tax rate, the company’s $30 billion market cap implies it will sell more than 2 billion doses. Plus, the company could very well sell more than 2 billion doses at higher prices, and it has other vaccines in the pipeline that could pay off down the road, he said.
Some investors questioned whether Moderna’s vaccine “could have lower operating margins since it’s being jointly developed with the NIH—raising a question [of] whether the government agency might be entitled to a meaningful [percentage] of the profits,” Evercore ISI said in today's follow-up note. Others brought up yesterday’s news that Moderna scored a $1.5 billion deal with the federal government to supply 100 million doses of its mRNA vaccine, if it succeeds, with the option for another 400 million doses. That suggests the price per dose for government purchases would be less than $25.
Moderna, Racing for Profits, Keeps Covid Vaccine Out of Reach of Poor
Some poorer countries are paying more and waiting longer for the company’s vaccine than the wealthy — if they have access at all
About one million doses of Moderna’s vaccine have gone to countries that the World Bank classifies as low income. By contrast, 8.4 million Pfizer doses and about 25 million single-shot Johnson & Johnson doses have gone to those countries. Of the handful of middle-income countries that have reached deals to buy Moderna’s shots, most have not yet received any doses, and at least three have had to pay more than the United States or European Union did, according to government officials in those countries.
Thailand and Colombia are paying a premium. Botswana’s doses are late. Tunisia couldn’t get in touch with Moderna. Unlike Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca, which have diverse rosters of drugs and other products, Moderna sells only the Covid vaccine. The Massachusetts company’s future hinges on the commercial success of its vaccine. “They are behaving as if they have absolutely no responsibility beyond maximizing the return on investment,” said Dr. Tom Frieden, a former head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Moderna’s $40 bln shot gain
Investors have assumed the worst read more about a Covid-19 variant, and that’s good for Moderna’s (MRNA.O) share price. Since Nov. 24, the vaccine maker has added $40 billion to its market capitalization, more than a third. That’s pricing in over 3 billion additional shots, which is rosy.
The World Health Organization says evidence suggests higher rates of reinfection among those who have already contracted the virus. It implies waning vaccine efficacy, and more need for boosters. However, while there might be more jabs, in the long-run, a few read more doses should suffice. That’s roughly the status quo, yet investors are assuming far more shots in the future. Moderna has sold vaccines at roughly $22 apiece this year, and its net margin next year is estimated to be about 54% according to Refinitiv estimates. At a profit of nearly $12 per shot, investors are assuming 3 billion additional shots sold based on its market gain.
Moderna also has competition. Pfizer (PFE.N) tacked on $12 billion, implying it and partner BioNTech (22UAy.DE) will sell billions of shots too. The new variant suggests building immunity will take some tweaking. That doesn’t mean investors are Teflon.
Pfizer forecasts $26bn of Covid-19 vaccine revenue after first-quarter success
According to the first-quarter results published by Pfizer this week, its coronavirus jab has reaped revenues of $3.5bn for the biopharma giant in the first three months of 2021
As the company behind one of the world’s leading Covid-19 vaccines, it will come as no surprise that Pfizer has seen impressive financial growth in this year’s first quarter. According to the first-quarter results published by Pfizer this week, its coronavirus jab BNT162b2, made in partnership with BioNTech, has reaped revenues of $3.5bn for the biopharma giant in the first three months of 2021.
The company’s Covid-19 vaccine was the first to be approved by regulators and is now available in over 50 countries. It is the most popular coronavirus jab being administered in the US, where it accounts for over 131 million of all Covid-19 vaccine doses given so far. The financial results also revealed that Pfizer has vastly exceeded its Covid-19 vaccine sales forecast of $15bn, and now expects the jab to bring in $26bn of revenue in 2021 – an increase of 73% on previously anticipated figures – with 1.6 billion doses set to be delivered under current contracts. It’s possible that even this adjusted forecast will prove to be an underestimate, with Pfizer expected to secure further lucrative supply contracts throughout the year.
Pfizer chairman and CEO Dr Albert Bourla said he was “extremely proud” of the way the company has begun 2021. He commented: “Even excluding the growth provided from BNT162b2, our revenues grew 8% operationally, which aligns with our stated goal of delivering at least a 6% compound annual growth rate through 2025.”
Pfizer expects 2021, 2022 COVID-19 vaccine sales to total at least $65 bln
Pfizer Inc (PFE.N) on Tuesday said it expected 2021 sales of the COVID-19 vaccine it developed with German partner BioNTech SE to reach $36 billion and forecast another $29 billion from the shot in 2022, topping analyst estimates for both years. The U.S. drugmaker said it is seeking to sign more vaccine deals with countries, which could drive sales even higher next year. It has the capacity to produce 4 billion doses in 2022 and has based its projections on sales of 1.7 billion doses.
Still, Chief Executive Albert Bourla said he was concerned that low- and middle-income countries would not place orders for next year's vaccine doses early enough, and could again end up behind wealthier countries. "The high-income countries, they have the tendency to be way more proactive, and they are placing their orders," Bourla said in an interview. "I want to make sure that I go on record publicly ... they need to place orders, period."
Pfizer said it expects to deliver at least one billion doses of its vaccine to low- and middle- income countries next year. The vaccine brought in sales of $13 billion in the third quarter. The company splits gross profit from sales of the shot in most of the world with BioNTech. Beyond 2022, Pfizer said it expects the market for COVID-19 vaccines to be durable, and continue generating sales for years to come.
Pfizer Reaps Hundreds of Millions in Profits From Covid Vaccine
Pfizer’s vaccine is disproportionately reaching the world’s rich.Credit Dado Ruvic/Reuters
Last year, racing to develop a vaccine in record time, Pfizer made a big decision: Unlike several rival manufacturers, which vowed to forgo profits on their shots during the Covid-19 pandemic, Pfizer planned to profit on its vaccine.
On Tuesday, the company announced just how much money the shot is generating. The vaccine brought in $3.5 billion in revenue in the first three months of this year, nearly a quarter of its total revenue, Pfizer reported. The vaccine was, far and away, Pfizer’s biggest source of revenue.
The company did not disclose the profits it derived from the vaccine, but it reiterated its previous prediction that its profit margins on the vaccine would be in the high 20 percent range. That would translate into roughly $900 million in pretax vaccine profits in the first quarter.
Who’s making money from Covid-19 vaccines?
The Covid-19 vaccines are a huge success story but this isn’t necessarily reflected in companies’ share prices. John Bowler, a specialist in healthcare investing, explains
The distribution of Covid-19 vaccines is picking up pace globally. US President Joe Biden last month set a new target of 200 million vaccination doses to be delivered in his first 100 days in office. The original target of 100 million was achieved before his sixtieth day in office.
The speed at which drugmakers were able to discover successful vaccines, undertake the necessary clinical trials, and then bring them to market in large volumes is testament to the ingenuity and innovation within the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries.
It shows what can be achieved when all participants - governments as well as companies - work together. For investors, a key question is whether the vaccines will make money for the companies who invented them, and for their shareholders. So far, the stellar success of the vaccines from a public health point of view hasn’t been reflected in the share price performance of the companies involved.
How The Covid-19 Vaccine Injected Billions Into Big Pharma—And Made Its Executives Very Rich
Two Heads: Billionaire BioNTech cofounders Ozlem Tureci and Ugur Sahin. POOL/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
Before the Covid-19 pandemic, Big Pharma had been easing out of the vaccine business for decades. By 2019, the major vaccine makers supplying America had dwindled to a handful of large companies—Merck, Sanofi, Pfizer, and Johnson & Johnson. Because vaccines are only used once or twice—as opposed to medicines that people take daily—they are not profitable. The scale of vaccination programs also invites class action litigation if something goes awry.
The White House needed a whopping amount of money to coax companies to research and test and then produce hundreds of millions of doses. They initially asked for and Congress rapidly appropriated $10 billion. Ultimately, Operation Warp Speed (OWS)—the U.S. government’s Covid-19 relief program—would dole out $22 billion to Big Pharma. The amounts of money were the kinds of sums normally seen in the smaller defense budget line items, but were massive for a public health project—$2.5 billion to Moderna, $1.2 billion to AstraZeneca, half a billion dollars to Johnson & Johnson, and $1.6 billion to a small company called Novavax. Only Pfizer opted out of ponying up to the trough at first—it didn’t want to devote resources to coordinating with the US government on its work.
In July, Pfizer signed a $1.95 billion deal to sell one hundred million doses of its two-shot vaccine to the United States, enough for fifty million people. It would be the first to reach American arms. The price per double shot—about forty dollars—is comparable to the price per shot of the flu vaccine. By February, the government had ordered three hundred million doses from Moderna, with its first shipment of one hundred million priced at thirty dollars per double-shot dose—cheaper than Pfizer partly because the United States had forked over nearly a billion dollars to Moderna research. Moderna’s CEO has said the price per dose will be higher for retail once the government contracts phase out.
How much is Big Pharma making from COVID-19 vaccines? We’re about to find out
Pfizer and Moderna among more than 160 S&P 500 companies expected to report in the coming week, along with ride-hail companies, videogame makers and much more
U.S. pharmaceutical companies are expected to collect more revenue from COVID-19 vaccines in the third quarter than they did in the entire first half of the year, and that money should continue to grow.
In the first half of the year, Pfizer Inc. PFE and Moderna Inc. MRNA reported collective sales of $17.2 billion for their vaccines, but both are expected to report higher third-quarter totals in the coming week, a collective $18 billion. Pfizer is scheduled to report earnings Tuesday morning, while Moderna follows on Thursday morning, after Johnson & Johnson JNJ reported last week more than $500 million in third-quarter sales, nearly double the $264 million it collected in the first half.
Pfizer collected revenue of $11.3 billion in the first half of the year from its COVID-19 vaccine, now known as Comirnaty, and analysts project third-quarter sales of $11.86 billion. Those numbers could be a bit high, however, as some sales could get pushed into the fourth quarter, when booster shots and the newly authorized vaccine for younger children begin landing in arms.
Here's how much money Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson could make from COVID vaccines
Over 92 million COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered across the United States as of Monday, according to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
There are currently three vaccines approved by the CDC and the Food and Drug Administration for emergency use, which were manufactured by Pfizer and BioNTech, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson.
Here's a FOX Business roundup of the profit each company's vaccine is expected to bring in:
- Pfizer and BioNTech
- Moderna
- Johnson & Johnson's vaccine
According to Johns Hopkins University, the United States has surpassed 29 million COVID-19 cases since the pandemic began in March 2020, with over 525,000 related deaths.
COVID vaccines create 9 new billionaires with combined wealth greater than cost of vaccinating world's poorest countries
At least nine people have become new billionaires since the beginning of the COVID pandemic, thanks to the excessive profits pharmaceutical corporations with monopolies on COVID vaccines are making, The People’s Vaccine Alliance revealed today ahead of a G20 leaders Global Health Summit.
Key members of the G20, who meet tomorrow, including the UK and Germany, are blocking moves to boost supply by ending companies’ monopoly control of vaccine production as COVID-19 continues to devastate lives in countries like India and Nepal where only a tiny fraction of the population has been vaccinated. Between them, the nine new billionaires, have a combined net wealth of $19.3 billion, enough to fully vaccinate all people in low-income countries 1.3 times. Meanwhile, these countries have received only 0.2 per cent of the global supply of vaccines, because of the massive shortfall in available doses, despite being home to 10 per cent of the world’s population.
In addition, eight existing billionaires –who have extensive portfolios in the COVID-19 vaccine pharma corporations– have seen their combined wealth increase by $32.2 billion, enough to fully vaccinate everyone in India. Campaigners from the People’s Vaccine Alliance, whose members include Global Justice Now, Oxfam and UNAIDS, have analysed Forbes Rich List data to highlight the massive wealth being generated for a handful of people from vaccines which were largely public funded.
Rate of Covid-19 booster shots outnumbers poor nations' vaccinations: WHO
WHO have regularly criticised wealthy nations for hoarding vaccines while lower-income countries do not have enough doses. PHOTO: AFP
Six times more booster shots of coronavirus vaccine are being administered around the world daily than primary doses in low-income countries, the director-general of the World Health Organisation (WHO) said Friday (Nov 12), calling the disparity "a scandal that must stop now".
Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, and others at WHO have regularly criticised wealthy nations for hoarding vaccines while lower-income countries do not have enough doses to vaccinate their elderly, front-line health care workers and other high-risk groups.
In August, Dr Tedros called for a global moratorium on boosters that he later extended until the end of the year. However, nations including Germany, Israel, Canada and the United States have gone ahead with booster programmes.
The WHO said in an email that 92 countries had confirmed programmes to provide added doses and that none of them were low-income. About 28.5 million Covid-19 vaccine doses are given daily around the world. According to the WHO, about a quarter of those are booster or additional doses.
A PEOPLE'S VACCINE, NOT A PROFIT VACCINE
Our best chance of all staying safe is to ensure a COVID-19 vaccine is available for all as a global common good. This will only be possible with a transformation in how vaccines are produced and distributed — pharmaceutical corporations must allow the COVID-19 vaccines to be produced as widely as possible by sharing their knowledge free from patents.
Instead they are protecting their monopolies and putting up barriers to restrict production and drive up prices, leaving us all in danger. No one company can produce enough for the whole world. So long as vaccine solutions are kept under lock and key, there won’t be enough to go around. We need a People’s Vaccine, not a profit vaccine.
A growing movement of health and humanitarian organisations, past and present world leaders, health experts, faith leaders and economists urging that when safe and effective vaccines are developed they are produced rapidly at scale and made available for all people, in all countries, free of charge.
COVID-19: The Omicron Variant
Classification of Omicron (B.1.1.529): SARS-CoV-2 Variant of Concern
The Technical Advisory Group on SARS-CoV-2 Virus Evolution (TAG-VE) is an independent group of experts that periodically monitors and evaluates the evolution of SARS-CoV-2 and assesses if specific mutations and combinations of mutations alter the behaviour of the virus. The TAG-VE was convened on 26 November 2021 to assess the SARS-CoV-2 variant: B.1.1.529.
The B.1.1.529 variant was first reported to WHO from South Africa on 24 November 2021. The epidemiological situation in South Africa has been characterized by three distinct peaks in reported cases, the latest of which was predominantly the Delta variant. In recent weeks, infections have increased steeply, coinciding with the detection of B.1.1.529 variant. The first known confirmed B.1.1.529 infection was from a specimen collected on 9 November 2021.
This variant has a large number of mutations, some of which are concerning. Preliminary evidence suggests an increased risk of reinfection with this variant, as compared to other VOCs. The number of cases of this variant appears to be increasing in almost all provinces in South Africa. Current SARS-CoV-2 PCR diagnostics continue to detect this variant. Several labs have indicated that for one widely used PCR test, one of the three target genes is not detected (called S gene dropout or S gene target failure) and this test can therefore be used as marker for this variant, pending sequencing confirmation. Using this approach, this variant has been detected at faster rates than previous surges in infection, suggesting that this variant may have a growth advantage.
related: Update on Omicron
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