In general, pharmaceutical company profit is a shining example of corporate greed (see pharma truths). In no other area is this quite as exemplified by big pharma lies about the COVID-19 vaccines profit windfall.
With the advent of the SARS Covid-2 virus in December and the subsequent declaration of a global health emergency by the World Health Organization (WHO) the race was on for Big Pharma to develop effective vaccines in as short a period of time as possible.
Vaccines for COVID-19 were urgently approved, which effectively means that they do not complete the normal standard clinical trials. Consequently, these vaccines, having been rushed through, are approved for mass vaccination after leaving phase 3 of clinical studies, whereas in normal circumstances – to prove the vaccine effectiveness in terms of side effects and safety – the candidate vaccine would be subjected to phase 4 of clinical studies.
Through the issue of emergency use licences many potential side effects have effectively been overlooked. By November 2021, 11 such vaccines had been approved by the WHO for mass vaccination.
The hasty development of these vaccines, along with foreshortened and inadequate clinical testing has been a windfall for pharmaceutical company profit, and in many situations not so good for the vaccine recipients.
COVID-19 vaccines – how much did Big Pharma profit?
As revealed in the publication by multinational investigators SOMO – Pharma’s Pandemic Profits – the pharmaceutical company profit arising from the development of these vaccines has been truly staggering as shown by the fact that in 2021 and 2022 Big Pharma giants Pfizer, BioNTech, Moderna, and Sinovac made an extraordinary total of $90 billion in profits from their COVID-19 vaccines and related products.
The league table of corporate greed during 2021 and 2022 ran as follows:
● Pfizer alone acquired $35 billion net profits on its vaccines and associated products
● BioNTech and Moderna each made some $20 billion net profit
● Sinovac accrued $15 billion net profits
Pharmaceutical company profit – why was it so vast?
The SOMO report on pharmaceutical company profits as a direct result of the COVID-19 pandemic found that these were funded by:
● Public investment
● Billions in grants for development and production
● Billions in governmental Advanced Purchase Agreements (APAs)
Governments were responsible for the expenditure of vast sums of public money in support of vaccine research & development. It is important to note that Big Pharma lies about covid vaccine development concealed the fact that they were under no obligation to return any of these funds, even in the event of large profits.
The APAs have been considerably more lucrative for Big Pharma as they provide up front development and production finance – through this route Big Pharma received in excess of $85 billion.
Through a lack of Big Pharma and government transparency this amount could be much higher.
As far as can be established these mercenary corporate interests are not required to return any money used to develop and produce vaccines – this laughably applies even when vaccine development fails and the vaccine does not see the light of day.
Big Pharma profiteering – where will it end?
Despite the huge sums clawed from publicly funded grants and APAs, Big Pharma realising that future demand for these vaccines will diminish, increased the price of these vaccines between 56% and 73% between 2020 and 2022 and have announced that they intend to quadruple prices this year!
Pharmaceutical company profits – what should be done?
The lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic should lead to health policy makers agreeing on stringent measures to prevent this staggering level of taxpayer funded profiteering.
A new international instrument– The Pandemic Accord – while recognising the need governments to attach strict conditions to publicly funded research has unfortunately has come up with a lame and half-hearted text that does not make conditions relating to the following mandatory:
● Pricing
● Profit margins
● Transparency
As the senior researcher at SOMO – Esther de Haan – stated:
“Without mandatory rules here, little will change. Corporate giants will continue to receive unconditional public funding and negotiate perverse deals. Public funding has to serve the public interest, which means affordable and safe medicines that are accessible to all, not super-profits for Big Pharma.”
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