The relief was written all over social media: ‘We’re going to have a vaccine’. There is light at the end of the pandemic tunnel. 

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Hi John,
The relief was all over social media following the news: ‘We’re going to have a vaccine’. There is light at the end of the pandemic tunnel. And I felt it too. But my next thought was: who’s going to get it?

It turns out that for billions of people around the world, they’re not going to have a vaccine – certainly not soon, and maybe not ever. Because US pharma giant Pfizer’s primary objective is to profit.

The company has announced that its vaccine candidate, produced jointly with German company BioNTech, is 90% effective in early trials. It says it has the capacity to produce the two required doses for 675 million people by the end of next year. But rather than distribute them around the world according to need, rich countries have already bought up most of the doses.

The obvious answer is to bring together the world’s resources to produce more of the vaccine as fast as possible – but Pfizer has exclusive rights to make this vaccine with no signs of sharing it. The World Health Organisation has a plan, a ‘global pool’ that allows companies and governments to collaborate to scale up production to tackle this global health emergency. Yet in May, Pfizer dismissed the WHO plan as “nonsense”. Meanwhile, on Monday the value of its shares went up by 11%.

John, in this global pandemic, we need global cooperation, not corporate greed. Can you email Pfizer now and ask them to share this vaccine with the world?
Email Pfizer today ([link removed][UNIQID]#p:first_name=John&p:last_name=xxxxxx&p:[email protected]&p:activeopt=Yes)
There is no bigger global issue right now than finding a vaccine for this devastating virus, which has already killed more than 1 million people. Some companies, like AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson and GSK, have pledged to make no profit from their vaccine candidates during the pandemic. While there are issues with each of their approaches, this should be an absolute minimum. Pfizer are out of step even with the world’s other pharma giants.

The company has been trying to stress that it hasn’t taken any government money towards this vaccine, including fending off an attempt by US vice-president Mike Pence to claim credit for it. Yet their partners on the vaccine, BioNTech, have received nearly half a billion euros from public funds. And Pfizer has received billions in tax breaks and advanced purchase orders, a form of government support.

Let’s be clear: Pfizer want to stress their independence because they want to get away without sharing this vaccine with the world. They are prepared to create artificial scarcity so that they can reap the dividends. This is unacceptable in a global pandemic.

“Today is a great day for science and humanity,” Pfizer’s CEO, Dr Albert Bourla, said when announcing the results. But it was only a great day for the tiny fraction of humanity who right now stand to benefit from it.

Let’s use this moment of huge public attention on this possible vaccine to demand that Pfizer changes course. Can you start by emailing Pfizer now?
Take action ([link removed][UNIQID]#p:first_name=John&p:last_name=xxxxxx&p:[email protected]&p:activeopt=Yes)
Thank you,

Jonathan Stevenson
Campaigner at Global Justice Now

MORE INFO

Most of Pfizer’s vaccine already promised to richest, campaigners warn, 11 November 2020,
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Pfizer and BioNTech could make $13bn from coronavirus vaccine, 10 November 2020,
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Global stock markets surge after Pfizer Covid vaccine news, 9 November 2020, [link removed][UNIQID]

WHO patent pool for potential Covid-19 products is ‘nonsense’, pharma leaders claim, Telegraph, 29 May 2020, [link removed][UNIQID]
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