Big Pharma: Share your vaccines

Is this email not displaying correctly? View in your browser

Hi John,

This week another big pharma company, Moderna, announced promising results of a Covid-19 vaccine. AstraZeneca is not far behind. It’s more light at the end of the tunnel in this pandemic.

Yet once again, the majority of Moderna's vaccine has already been sold to the world’s richest – 78% of doses to countries with 12% of the global population. Most people on the planet are nowhere near receiving it.

In this global health emergency, vaccines should be available to all, everywhere, free of charge. Manufacturers should be working together to produce enough doses for everyone, distributed in order of need. And companies and governments should be co-operating through the World Health Organisation to make this happen.

Instead, Big Pharma are patenting the vaccines and competing for sales, and governments are competing for doses. It’s not only unjust, it will prolong the pandemic.

That’s why we’re launching a new petition calling on the corporations behind the seven leading vaccine candidates to lift the patents, and share their vaccines with the world. As a Global Justice Now supporter, can you be one of the first to sign?

Tell Big Pharma to share their vaccines with the world

We have already made progress in pushing back against Big Pharma profiteering in this pandemic. After US company Gilead tried to claim ‘rare disease’ status for its Covid-19 treatment remdesivir, to get extended rights to set the price, a global outcry forced them to back down. Some companies like AstraZeneca have been forced to pledge ‘no profit during the pandemic’ on their vaccines (though they need to open their books to prove it).

What’s more, we know Big Pharma has been shamed into co-operating with governments to distribute vaccines to the world before. Treatments for HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and Hepatitis C have been shared through 'intellectual property’ pools in the past, to make them available to low-income countries at affordable prices. The WHO has set up a similar scheme for Covid-19 vaccines and treatments.

Although many contracts have already been signed, there is a long way to go in this pandemic. Up to now, vaccines have been a theoretical possibility while public and media attention has been on testing and treatment. But now the world’s attention is on vaccines, it’s time to mobilise to put pressure on Big Pharma to do the right thing. Can you start by signing our petition now?

Sign the petition

Sharing the vaccine is not just the right thing to do, it’s also the best way to save lives and end the pandemic. Last week a global study found that distributing vaccines around the world fairly, based on size of population, could save twice as many lives as leaving distribution to the power of wealth.

That’s why we’re working with partners in the People’s Vaccine campaign to build the biggest possible campaign around the world. In September more than 1,000 Covid-19 survivors from 37 countries called on Big Pharma to put saving lives ahead of making profit. “Some of us have lost loved ones to this killer disease,” they wrote. “Some of us have come close to death ourselves. Some of us are continuing to live in fear that contracting this disease would be fatal for us. We see no justification why your profit or monopolies should mean anyone else should go through this.”

We need to show Big Pharma that the world is watching their every move on vaccines, and they won’t get away with repeating the profiteering of the past. The first step is to build a giant global petition. Please add your name now.

Add your name

Thank you,
Jonathan Stevenson
Global Justice Now

More info

1. The Covid Vaccine: For Rich Countries Only, 18 November 2020, https://tribunemag.co.uk/2020/11/the-covid-vaccine-for-rich-countries-only

2. 78% of Moderna vaccine doses already sold to rich countries, 16 November 2020, https://www.globaljustice.org.uk/news/2020/nov/16/78-moderna-vaccine-doses-already-sold-rich-countries

3. Gilead Sciences backs off monopoly claim for promising coronavirus drug, 25 March 2020, https://theintercept.com/2020/03/25/gilead-sciences-coronavirus-drug

4. Why Poor Countries Could Be Priced Out Of Oxford University's Covid-19 Vaccine, 20 July 2020, https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/oxford-vaccine-trial-coronavirus-volunteer-astrazeneca_uk_5f102290c5b619afc3fd8de3

5. Medicine Patents Pool, https://medicinespatentpool.org, WHO's COVID-19 technology access pool, https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/global-research-on-novel-coronavirus-2019-ncov/covid-19-technology-access-pool

6. A coronavirus vaccine will save more lives if we share it widely, 17 September 2020, https://www.popsci.com/story/health/coronavirus-vaccine-bill-gates-report

7. Covid survivors from 37 countries write to pharmaceutical bosses to demand a People’s Vaccine, 29 September 2020, https://www.globaljustice.org.uk/news/2020/sep/29/covid-survivors-37-countries-write-pharmaceutical-bosses-demand-peoples-vaccine

The US-UK trade deal could give corporations everything they want. Help us stop it.

We are campaigning to stop the toxic US trade deal which is likely to lower food standards, weaken chemical regulation, increase medicine prices and block climate action.

Regular gifts give us the long-term stability to plan effective campaigns for a more just world. And they will help further the campaign to stop this toxic trade deal.

If you’re not already a member, will you join today?

Join today