Nearly two years after the introduction of COVID-19 biologics around the world, the pharmaceutical industry is facing a waning demand for these products. Scott Rosenstein, a New York-based health care adviser to Eurasia Group said:
Supply is exceeding demand in much of the world, even with many countries rolling out booster shots. Once the perception set in that omicron is less likely to lead to severe illness, and the vaccines don’t do a great job at preventing infection while still providing strong protection against severe illness, demand for Covid vaccines has tailed off considerably.1
U.S. Discarded 81.1 Million Doses of COVID Shots
In June 2022, the U.S. Centers for Control and Disease Prevention (CDC) said that pharmacies and state health authorities and federal agencies in the United States discarded 82.1 million doses of COVID shots between December 2020 and May 2022.2
Many doses of COVID shots have been discarded because their shelf life expired or because they were compromised due to broken freezers and power outage issues.3 The CDC has stated that one of the reasons that many COVID shot doses have had to be discarded is because, unlike most other biologics in the U.S., the COVID shots are manufactured in multi-dose vials, which means all the doses must be used within hours once the vials are opened or must be discarded if unused.4
Canada Disposes of More Than 25 Million COVID Shot Doses
The government of Canada recently discarded 7.7 million doses of Moderna/NIAID’s Spikevax mRNA biologic because of low demand. As of June 2022, the government had thrown away 1.2 million doses of Spikevax that had expired, along with 13.6 million doses of AstraZeneca/Oxford University’s Vaxzevria vaccine, 7,000 doses of Pfizer/BioNTech’s Comirnaty mRNA biologic and 3.1 million doses of the Novavax’s Nuvaxovid vaccine.5
Canada’s vaccination rate has been high with 80 percent of Canadians having received two doses of COVID shots. However, there has been far less uptake of additional booster shots. Only 50 percent of Canadians have received a third booster shot and 14.3 percent have received a fourth dose, despite recommendations by public health officials.
Switzerland Will Throw Away 9 Million Doses of Spikevax
Swiss government officials have reported that they will destroy nine million doses of Spikevax that have expired, with an additional 5.1 million shots to expire by February 2023. With less than 70 of its population vaccinated, Switzerland has one of the lowest COVID vaccination rates in Europe.6
India Threw Away 100 Million Doses of CoviShield
Indian vaccine maker Serum Institute of India said it had to throw away 100 million doses of its COVID vaccine, CoviShield, after they expired. The company halted its production of CoviShield in December 2021 due to low demand.7 Adar Poonawalla, CEO of Serum Institute, said, “The booster vaccines have no demand as people now seem fed up with Covid. Honestly, I’m also fed up. We all are.”
He added:
Going forward, when people take a flu shot every year, they may take a Covid vaccine along with it. But in India, there is no culture of taking a flu shot every year, like in the West.
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