7/14/2023 0 Comments Pfizer secret government contracts![]() ![]() Pfizer has faced increased scrutiny allegations of excessive global profits after its partner, the biotechnology company BioNTech, announced in September 2020 it was to receive up to €375m (£320m) from the German government to fund vaccine development.Īnna Marriott, Oxfam’s health policy manager, said: “It is deplorable that billions of people around the world are being denied vaccines so that pharmaceutical companies can make obscene profits. Drug firms should suspend intellectual property rights for Covid-19 vaccines, tests, treatments and other medical tools. Only 2% of people in low-income countries had been fully vaccinated against coronavirus. Photograph: Rafiq Maqbool/APĪ report last month by the People’s Vaccine Alliance, a coalition of organisations including aid charities, said Pfizer and other drug firms have sold the majority of doses to rich countries, leaving low-income countries “out in the cold”. One biological engineering expert claims the Pfizer vaccine costs just 76p to manufacture for each shot. Pfizer expects to deliver 2.3bn vaccines this year with predicted revenues of $36bn (£26.3bn). The estimated manufacturing costs do not include research, distribution and other costs, but Pfizer says its profit margin as a percentage before tax are in the “high-20s”. It is reportedly being sold for £22 a dose to the UK government. The Channel 4 investigation reveals analysis by one biological engineering expert claiming the Pfizer vaccine costs just 76p to manufacture for each shot. The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, which now has the brand name Comirnaty, will be one of the most lucrative drugs in pharmaceutical history. ![]() While AstraZeneca agreed to sell its vaccine at cost during the pandemic, Pfizer wanted to secure its profits. Pfizer has won plaudits for its vaccine delivery programme, but the US multinational faces growing scrutiny over the scale of its profits and the proportion of doses it has delivered to low-income countries. How did we end up in a situation where a handful of drug firms were able to exert so much control over the most powerful governments in the world? It points to a broken system.” “The UK government has allowed the drug firms to call the shots. It allows pharmaceutical companies to bypass domestic legal processes. He said: “It’s the only high-income country we have seen that has agreed to this provision. Rizvi said the UK needed to explain why it had agreed to secret arbitration proceedings. Zain Rizvi, research director at Public Citizen, a US consumer advocacy organisation which has examined Pfizer’s global vaccine contracts, said: “There is a wall of secrecy surrounding these contracts and it’s unacceptable, particularly in a public health crisis.” ![]()
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