Has Switzerland been left with 5 million doses of a useless vaccine? It may be too early to say.
The issue is the German drug maker, Curevac. The government pre-ordered the vaccine ahead of its authorization. But initial results show the jab has only reached a 47% effectiveness – mainly because if its inability to handle the new variants.
Those figures mean it will not be cleared to use at the moment. The company says there is a chance further analysis of the data may change the figure.
But the question remains what will happen to the doses? The Federal Health Office says contracts with private companies remain confidential.
It had been hoped the Curevac vaccine could start to be used next month – that now appears highly unlikely.
The regulator Swissmedic says it’s keeping the issue under review.