Why is it so difficult to get covid vaccines through free market?

Question

I am not sure if this should be in politic and economy

Here, in Indonesia we cannot get vaccine buy just paying for it. I've heard that's also the case for the whole world.

I asked my friend and they said that it's to reduce disparity. I found it strange that we got to reduce disparity in this case given that rich people have bigger houses and more cars already.

So I asked in a group.

My friends say that the issue is that my government prohibit a few vaccines. Basically the government ban sinovac, miderman and a few vaccine from being imported.

So not all vaccine.

I've heard there are other cheaper brand that my country doesn't prohibit. So this seems like economic question rather than just political.

Vaccine is like software. It's hard to invent, but once invented it's cheap to mass produce. So I bet all those vaccine producers want to produce like hell and sell as many as possible.

I look around and one vaccine factory says that he doesn't increase production capacity because he doesn't know whether there will be buyers or not.

This seems like a small problem to solve. Just sell cheaper at those that pay in front.

So, I still have a hard time understanding why vaccine is scarce. If people are willing to pay far more than production costs, how can it be scarce?

One of my friends' boss just died. I am sure he is willing to pay a few hundred dollars for vaccine. The production cost is like $5. Why is it scare?

This article says that https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/05/why-covid-vaccine-producer-india-faces-major-shortage-of-doses.html Indian prohibits export. How in the earth prohibiting export makes more vaccine available in India. If anything, vaccine factories can just mass produce more if they can export.

Is this all fault of scarcity mentality and government? Out of fear of shortage governments make policies that actually cause those shortages?

Answer 1

There are several types of COVID vaccines and the three used in the United States are very difficult to manufacture. They don't scale like you think they would. Before COVID, the Moderna and Pfizer process could only produce 50,000 doses of any type of mRNA drug. I cannot speak about the Russian, Chinese or European vaccines.

Both the Moderna and the Pfizer attach a single lipid to a short strand of RNA. To manufacture them, you are essentially building one molecule at a time. For the Janssen vaccine, you have to grow an adenovirus. There are two more coming out soon. They are grown inside tobacco leaves. It is a plant virus that is harmless to humans that have been modified to have the COVID spikes. It can be produced as fast as tobacco grows.

For example, before COVID there was only one lab in the world that produced the lipids necessary for mRNA vaccines. It is in rural Canada. The components needed to make it come from relatively rare substances. The adenovirus that Janssen uses is stored at -94 degrees Fahrenheit until it is ready for shipment. The Pfizer vaccine has to remain at -85 Fahrenheit until just before use when it must be brought to room temperature. Once opened, it must be used quickly. The Moderna vaccine doesn't require the same cold storage but still has to be colder than normal commercial freezers can reach.

These vaccines are very fragile, which is why the cold temperatures are required.

There is also a shortage of small glass vials. Ordinary glass cannot be used. It has to be certified for medical use. It has performance requirements that must be met in production, transit, freezing, and storage. Production has been halted several times simply because there was not enough glass available to make the containers.

It has never been possible to make unlimited amounts of things. The COVID vaccines are pushing the supply chains to their limits.