JAPAN DEAD LAST IN VACCINATIONS AMONG RICH NATIONS AT 1.1%

In the race to vaccinate citizens against COVID-19, Japan should be a front-runner. It has nearly universal health care coverage and pharmaceutical prowess, not to mention a pending national election, a large elderly population, and the looming Olympics to motivate political leaders to move fast.

Yet it has the dubious distinction of being among the worst performers when it comes to inoculations. Japan has given enough doses to cover just 1.1% of its population, the lowest among the 37 members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, according to Bloomberg’s vaccine tracker.

That compares to 36% in the U.S. and nearly 35% in the UK. Within Asia, it trails China, India, Singapore, and South Korea and is only slightly ahead of lower-income nations like the Philippines and Thailand, Bruce Einhorn and Lisa Du reported for Bloomberg News.

Ray Fujii, a Tokyo-based partner at L.E.K. Consulting whose clients include healthcare companies blames the government’s lackluster preparation for the delay.

While a slow supply of vaccines from Pfizer Inc. was to blame early on, that’s no longer the case, he said.

Japan has likely received more than 15 million doses of the Pfizer shot, according to figures and estimates provided by the government in March.

”It’s not about Pfizer not shipping enough vaccines or we don’t have enough vaccines yet,” he said, instead of putting the blame on poor distribution and lack of preparation. “It delays everyone’s business opportunities in Japan, so that pushes back the economic recovery from COVID-19."

While Japanese companies like Tokyo-based Daiichi Sankyo Co. are working on vaccine trials, they are far behind Western rivals. Daiichi has started the first phase of a local trial for an mRNA vaccine and will need to conduct a larger study before the shot can be approved.

“In Japan, vaccine development is very difficult,” said Masayuki Yabuta, executive officer for Daiichi Sankyo’s biologics division, citing nervousness around the experimental technology. The COVID-19 pandemic is the first time that the mRNA platform has been used in a vaccine; it’s now proven to be extraordinarily effective.

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