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<h1 class="reader-title">COVID-19: Big Pharma’s ‘Obscene’
Profits</h1>
By Jake Johnson – Nov 18, 2021</div>
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<p><font size="4"><strong>Moderna, Pfizer and BioNTech
rake in millions an hour while refusing to share
manufacturing recipes with low-income countries.</strong></font></p>
<p>Moderna, Pfizer and BioNTech — the makers of the two
most successful coronavirus vaccines — are raking in a
combined $65,000 in profits every minute as they refuse
to share their manufacturing recipes with <a
href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/10/22/science/developing-country-covid-vaccines.html">developing
countries</a>, where billions of people still lack
access to lifesaving shots.</p>
<p>According to a new People’s Vaccine Alliance <a
href="https://www.oxfam.org/en/press-releases/pfizer-biontech-and-moderna-making-1000-profit-every-second-while-worlds-poorest">analysis</a> of
recent earnings reports, People’s Vaccine Alliance, “It
is obscene that just a few companies are making millions
of dollars in profit every single hour while just two
percent of people in low-income countries have been
fully vaccinated against coronavirus,” said Maaza Seyoum
of the People’s Vaccine Alliance Africa.</p>
<p>“Pfizer, BioNTech, and Moderna have used their
monopolies to prioritize the most profitable contracts
with the richest governments, leaving low-income
countries out in the cold.”</p>
<p><a
href="https://orinocotribune.com/pfizer-prioritizes-profits-over-people-refuses-to-release-covid-19-vaccine-patent/"
target="_blank" rel="noopener">RELATED CONTENT: Pfizer
Prioritizes Profits over People, Refuses to Release
COVID-19 Vaccine Patent</a></p>
<p>Moderna — a Massachusetts-based company that developed
its vaccine with the help of <a
href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/11/11/nih-praised-finally-showing-modicum-verve-vaccine-patent-fight-moderna">government
research</a> and around $10 billion in taxpayer
funding — has delivered just 0.2 percent of its total
vaccine supply to low-income countries, the People’s
Vaccine Alliance estimates. The coronavirus vaccine is
Moderna’s only product on the market.</p>
<p>Pfizer and its Germany-based partner BioNTech — whose
vaccine was also <a
href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-11-09/pfizer-vaccine-s-funding-came-from-berlin-not-washington">helped
along</a> by taxpayer money — haven’t done much better
than their competitor, sending less than 1 percent of
their supply to poor nations while profiting hugely from
sales to rich countries.</p>
<p>“Predominantly, right now, we have already signed
orders, and those are with high-income countries,”
Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla recently <a
href="https://www.barrons.com/articles/pfizer-covid-earnings-ceo-51635884114">said</a> of
coronavirus vaccine sales for next year, blaming poor
countries for not ordering shots quickly enough.</p>
<p>“We are negotiating right now with few middle-income
countries, and with even fewer low-income countries,”
Bourla said.</p>
<p>But public health campaigners argue that bilateral
deals and vaccine donations are not sufficient to bring
production and distribution into line with global needs.
Instead, they say, pharmaceutical giants must relinquish
their vaccine recipes and allow <a
href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/10/22/science/developing-country-covid-vaccines.html">qualified
manufacturers</a> around the world to produce low-cost
generic versions for their populations.</p>
<p><a
href="https://orinocotribune.com/bad-intentions-us-sanctions-iranian-pharmaceutical-company-developing-anti-covid-vaccine/"
target="_blank" rel="noopener">RELATED CONTENT: Bad
Intentions: US Sanctions Iranian Pharmaceutical
Company Developing Anti-COVID Vaccine</a></p>
<p>Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech have thus far refused to do
so — and <a
href="https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2021-pfizer-secret-to-whats-in-the-covid-vaccine/">lobbied
aggressively</a> against a World Trade Organization
proposal to temporarily suspend vaccine patents. Bourla,
for his part, has dismissed technology-transfer
proposals as “dangerous nonsense.”</p>
<p>“Contrary to what Pfizer’s CEO says, the real nonsense
is claiming the experience and expertise to develop and
manufacture lifesaving medicines and vaccines does not
exist in developing countries,” Anna Marriott, health
policy manager at Oxfam International, <a
href="https://www.oxfam.org/en/press-releases/pfizer-biontech-and-moderna-making-1000-profit-every-second-while-worlds-poorest">said</a> in
a statement Tuesday. “This is just a false excuse that
pharmaceutical companies are hiding behind to protect
their astronomical profits.”</p>
<p>“It is also a complete failure of government to allow
these companies to maintain monopoly control and
artificially constrain supply in the midst of a pandemic
while so many people in the world are yet to be
vaccinated,” she added.</p>
<p>(<a
href="https://consortiumnews.com/2021/11/18/covid-19-big-pharmas-obscene-profits/"
target="_blank" rel="noopener">Consortium News</a>)</p>
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<p>Jake Johnson is a staff writer for Common Dreams.</p>
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