Unit 4.1 & 4.2 Exam

Case Study

Pfizer's coronavirus vaccine

Source: https://unsplash.com/photos/mAGZNECMcUg

In early November 2020, more than a year after the first case of the coronavirus was reported, news media announced a vaccine that potentially offers up to 95% protection against Covid-19. The vaccine is produced by American pharmaceutical company Pfizer.

The race to a successful vaccine to liberate everyone from the world's most severe economic recession in living memory would enhance the reputation and profitability of any pharmaceutical company able to gain a first-mover advantage. However, there are also important questions to ask about private sector firms engaged in research and innovation in return for colossal profits, especially when it comes to matters of public health and safety.

Pfizer and BioNTech, its German biotech partner, are expected to earn around $13 billion in 2021 from an approved coronavirus vaccine. Some analysts suggested that large pharmaceutical companies like Pfizer and BioNTech should not be allowed to profit from the world’s most severe crisis since the Second World War, although such views were dismissed by Pfizer’s CEO, Albert Bourla. Afterall, Bourla said about being private for-profit company, Pfizer “have never taken any money from the US government, or from anyone” so should be allowed to reap the benefits of its innovation and the huge financial risks the company has taken.

Whilst Bourla argues that pharmaceutical companies should be allowed to patent Pfizer's vaccine in the same way that other drugs are, there are concerns that this would give the company the exclusive right to charge whatever price the market is willing to tolerate for the new vaccines. Global Justice Now, a British campaign group, is calling for patents on the Pfizer vaccine to be suspended to prevent the company from having the sole rights to make and sell their drugs for the next 20 years, preventing the supply of cheaper, generic versions and thereby stifling competition from rival manufacturers.

Although the announcement was a public relations triumph for Pfizer, critics suggest that coronavirus should serve as a reminder of the disastrous consequences of allowing the industry to be in the hands of a large profiteering monopoly. In the USA, it has been reported that people pay on average nearly four times more for medicines than in other countries, with large pharmaceutical companies being accused of ripping off patients.

In its most recent financial year, multinational Pfizer earned a net profit of $17.9 billion, which was 34.2% of its sales revenues. So, whilst the world celebrated the news of a vaccine, it does not mean that large profit-making pharmaceutical companies are necessarily placing people before profits.

The UK was the first country in the world to start using the Pfizer vaccine after regulators approved its use in early December. On 8th December 2020 at 6:31am, Margaret Keenan, aged 90, became the first person in the world to receive the Pfizer vaccine. On what has been dubbed "V-Day", as the mass vaccination programme began, UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock said there was "light at the end of the tunnel".

Sources: Adapted from https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/nov/12/covid-vaccine-patent-pharmaceutical-industry-profits-public-sector, The Guardian 12th November 2020, and https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-55218679, BBC 8th December 2020