Asian Development Bank to support the purchase of COVID-19 vaccines

The facility, through its trade and supply chain finance programme (TSCFP), will provide unfunded support guarantees for private sector purchases of these items, covering the risk of non-payment. Through risk-sharing with its partner banks, the ADB says that the total amount of the facility could be leveraged to USD 1 billion.

Support granted through the facility will be provided dependent on certain criteria, which include that the flows must be vaccine or vaccine-related and that any purchases must be consistent with a country’s allocation plan.

Another requirement is that vaccines purchased under the facility must be approved by either the World Health Organization (WHO) or a stringent regulatory authority. So far, the only vaccine to have been approved by an Asian regulator is manufactured by Pfizer-BioNTech. The country has also signed advanced purchase agreements with other vaccine manufacturers, including Moderna, although the HSA is yet to approve the American biotechnology company’s product.

In August 2020, the TSCFP launched a free tool on its website to trace the supply chains for goods including ventilators, N95 masks, and other key products, to facilitate the process of identifying and addressing bottlenecks. It will now add vaccines to this mapping tool.