Join our protests on 11 May in Cambridge and Macclesfield to demand a People's Vaccine.
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Hi John,
AstraZeneca has often been portrayed as the ‘best of a bad bunch’ - it has pledged to charge a non-profit price for the vaccine it produces during the pandemic and is supplying the majority of its vaccines to the global south.
However, the company has severely limited access to the know-how behind the vaccine, restricting production and putting in place a system where vaccines are sold at higher prices to low and middle income countries than to rich countries, making its price promise effectively worthless. It’s also signed deals which give the UK priority over the global south.
We believe that a vaccine which was almost entirely funded with public money should be a global public good. Big pharma simply shouldn’t be in charge of deciding who gets vaccinated and who doesn’t.
This is why we'll be holding a protest on the day of AstraZeneca’s AGM to send the company one clear message: we demand a People's Vaccine.
Join our protest at AstraZeneca on 11 May ([link removed])
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** Our demands:
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1. Keep the vaccine affordable - AstraZeneca’s price promise only lasts until the company itself judges the pandemic ‘over’ – as early as this Summer. We are calling on the company not to hike its prices this summer. It must reaffirm its commitment to keeping the vaccine at cost price and ensure the global south is not paying higher prices than rich countries.
2. Share the technology - AstraZeneca must join the Covid-19 Technology Access Pool (CTAP), the World Health Organisation facility set up to share Covid-19 technology and know-how, instead of jealously guarding life-saving technology.
3. Suspend the patents - We call on the UK government to stop blocking global south demands for Covid-19 vaccine patents to be suspended (a TRIPS waiver).
** Why we need to take action now
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Right now, the world cannot produce enough doses because each of the major vaccine makers have monopolies - no one else is allowed or knows how to produce the Pfizer vaccine, the AstraZeneca vaccine or the Moderna vaccine unless those companies expressly allow it.
As the global death toll exceeds 3 million and continues to rise, this is clearly unacceptable. We must use all the tools at our disposal to contain this virus, and save lives.
There are factories wanting to help ramp up global supplies but don’t have the technology or the know-how. We are calling on AstraZeneca to share its technology with the World Health Organisation to help transfer this know-how to factories waiting to be mobilised.
The AstraZeneca vaccine was 97% funded by the public - it should be a People’s Vaccine and should not have been privatised, leaving distribution and supply to just one company.
Will you help to put pressure on the company at its annual shareholder meeting on 11 May?
Join the protest ([link removed])
We are not just targeting AstraZeneca, our US allies are also protesting outside of US-based corporations, Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson and so this is a globally co-ordinated action so we can send one message to a broken industry that puts profiteering over saving lives.
If you are unable to join our protests, please help share our graphic to raise awareness that the AstraZeneca vaccine is publicly funded and should be shared with the world.
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Thank you for your support!
Best wishes
Heidi Chow
Campaigner at Global Justice Now
PSYou can read more about why AstraZeneca’s pledges are not good enough in my latest blog ([link removed])
** Help ensure Covid-19 vaccines are available to everyone, everywhere
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It’s vitally important that Covid-19 vaccine patents are suspended during the pandemic, and for big pharma to share their know-how globally, as the best way of ensuring there are enough vaccines for everyone everywhere.
Regular gifts give us the long-term stability to plan effective campaigns and the flexibility to respond to crises like these.
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