OMICRON GIVES BIRTH TO NEW DRUG MAFIA—BIG PHARMA
Omicron is wreaking havoc across the world, spreading faster than any variant we have seen so far. Omicron was detected in the last week of November 2021, and it has reached almost every country and has infected millions by now.
The world is bracing for another wave. The WHO is talking about ending the pandemic in 2022, but that will not happen.
Pharmaceutical giants have a vested interest in making sure the pandemic never ends. They will not let it happen. The Coronavirus is their golden goose. Every wave of the pandemic is a wave of profits for them.
Vaccine makers are rolling in money, specifically two companies—Pfizer and Moderna. Their profits have shot up astronomically. As news about the Omicron variant spread, eight investors in Pfizer reaped profits to the tune of $10 billion as the share prices of Pfizer rose exponentially.
The investors are earning such obscene profits through the stock market. In 2020, Moderna was a loss-making company; in 2021, it made more than $7 billion in profits. This profit might look massive, but it pales compared to Pfizer, which raked in profits close to $19 billion in 2021.
It is an astounding jump of 124% from the previous year. Governments, scientists and doctors are looking at ways to end this pandemic but not big pharma. Pfizer and Moderna are busy perfecting their business models.
A British news outlet did an investigation and found that Pfizer spends $1 towards the cost of making one dose of Coronavirus vaccine, but it sells the vaccine at almost $30 per dose to the British government.
Moderna offered its vaccine to South Africa at around $30 per dose which is again 15 times the cost of production. These pharmaceutical giants justify such high cost of vaccines by arguing that they have to spend large sums of money in research and development of the vaccines, which needs to be recovered.
Investigation reveals a different story. Pfizer and Moderna were incentivized by governments to do research and develop the vaccines. They received government funding. Moderna received $2.5 billion from the US government.
Pfizer got close to $2 billion from the US government towards vaccine development and procurement. Pfizer partner BioNTech got $445 million from the German government to accelerate the development of the vaccines. Despite getting government funding for vaccine development, they are being allowed to set the price of the vaccine and make obscene profits.
These companies sell their vaccines to different countries at different prices. This is nothing short of war profiteering. This has given rise to the term “vaccine inequity.”
Poor countries cannot afford such expensive vaccines as the cumulative cost of vaccinating is very high. Epidemiologists say that 70% of the entire population has to be vaccinated to attain herd immunity.
At such high prices, the vaccines become unaffordable by the poor countries. This lack of vaccination has allowed the Coronavirus to infect more people and mutate. As a result, new variants are coming out, the latest being Omicron.
Vaccine-manufacturing companies ensure that the vaccine patent stays with them so that no one else can manufacture them. Moderna developed its vaccine in collaboration with the National Institute of Health of USA.
Scientists of NIH made a significant contribution to the development of the vaccine, but Moderna refuses to acknowledge it. If they do so, it will give the US government rights over the patent as co-inventors.
Moderna fears the government can then share the patent with other countries, and Moderna would lose a chance of making huge profits. The NIH has taken the matter to the the courts. Moderna hopes for an amicable solution.
Pfizer, on the other hand, demands indemnity from legal prosecution. Pfizer struck an agreement with the UK government, which has a secrecy clause. This clause guarantees the company that all controversies regarding the pricing and delivery schedule of the vaccine would be resolved in secret arbitration proceedings.
The reason for the battle over vaccine patents is because it gives the pharma companies control over their supply. They use this as a leverage to price the vaccine according to their will.
After the onslaught of Omicron, Pfizer and Moderna have already increased the prices of their vaccines. This is vaccine blackmail. They can do this because of the secret contracts, which allows them to keep the negotiations away from the public eye. The world is talking about booster shots for Omicron.
Again, it is the pharma companies that have decided the price for the booster shots. It is disheartening to realize how much power has been vested in the hands of the vaccine makers. They can hold governments hostage.
They can force people to pay through their nose. Many health advocacy groups have raised an alarm about the predatory behavior of the pharmaceutical companies. Pfizer has proclaimed that the booster shots might be priced around $175 per dose. The secret contracts enable this kind of predatory pricing.
As is being predicted, if people are going to need booster shots every year then vaccine manufacturing companies cannot be allowed to set the prices. In reality, they are dictating every line and every clause of their contract. Governments around the world need to break this monopoly.
They could start by ending secret negotiations and breaking the locks on vaccine patents. Thankfully, for India, both Covishield and the home-grown Covaxin are readily available and are being administered free of cost.
This has helped hugely to prevent further loss of life because of Coronavirus. The world could learn a thing or two from India in this matter. India take a bow.
edited and proofread by nikita sharma
