I'm finding it hard to see these things as anything but PR directed at their own voters.https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...ron-coronavirus-vaccine-exports-eu-controlled
Macron not coming across well here, I think. Weird that he cites the discredited 'news' about the AZ vaccine being only 8% effective in older people.
Big pharma is the epitome of globalisation and global supply chains. The idea that individual countries (or even regions) can just shut their doors is ridiculous. Just to take the Novavax vaccine and its "UK factory". It will rely on specialist chemical reagents manufactured in countries including the US and Sweden. All Novavax vaccines rely on a saponin produced by soap bark trees in Chile. That's before you get onto some of the single use bioreactor types that may all come from a single factory in the world. Then there's the vials and syringes that sound trivial until you hear the reason many US sites can't get a sixth dose out of the Pfizer vials is because they can't ramp up the supply of the right kind of syringe.
The US is probably the closest to self sufficiency, or could get there quickly - but quickly in this industry is 6-18 months depending on what you need to build. Not the days/weeks that the politicians are trying to haggle over.