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Our new report shows why we can't trust Big Pharma to deal with #Covid_19 fairly. It’s an industry driven by sky high profits. While public money has produced vaccines in record time, those medicines have now been privatised! (1/12) https://www.globaljustice.org.uk/resources/horrible-history-big-pharma
Six of the biggest corporations in the #Covid_19 market generated $266 billion last year, with profits totalling $46bn. Johnson & Johnson is more wealthy than rich countries like New Zealand and Hungary. Pfizer’s revenues are bigger than oil-rich Kuwait or Malaysia. (2/12)
How have they got rich? We look at examples. Pfizer hiked the price of on anti-epilepsy drug on which 48,000 NHS patients relied. #NHS annual spend on the drug rose from £2mn to £50mn in a year. Pharmacies faced hikes of up to 2,600%! (3/12) https://www.gov.uk/government/news/cma-welcomes-court-of-appeal-judgment-in-phenytoin-case
GSK was handed a $3bn fine after admitting to kickbacks to doctors in the US and encouraging the prescription of unsuitable antidepressants to children. Doctors and spouses were flown to five-star resorts, given $750, access to snorkelling & golf (4/12) https://www.theguardian.com/business/2012/jul/03/glaxosmithkline-fined-bribing-doctors-pharmaceuticals
Gilead introduced a Hep-C drug in the US for $84,000 p/course. A Senate investigation concluded: “it was always Gilead’s plan to max out revenue… accessibility and affordability were pretty much an afterthought." (5/12) https://www.fiercepharma.com/pharma/gilead-faces-legal-action-massachusetts-if-it-doesn-t-cut-hep-c-prices-state-ag
Pfizer and GSK produce a pneumonia vaccine, which health @MSF_access claim has earned the companies over $50 billion, but still left 55 million children are unable to access it largely due to high prices. (6/12) https://msfaccess.org/first-alternative-pneumonia-vaccine-breaks-pfizer-and-gsks-decades-long-stranglehold-promising-more
And in Covid? Companies have benefitted from billions of public money. But the products are not public goods. Pfizer made no promise to limit profits, and has pre-sold most doses to rich governments, representing 14% of the world. (7/12) https://www.globaljustice.org.uk/news/2020/nov/11/most-pfizers-vaccine-already-promised-richest-campaigners-warn
Moderna’s executives have made tens of millions in share sales which former US regulators have called "highly problematic" and worth investigation. Its vaccine is been made with public money, yet the company could charge up to $74 per immunisation (8/12) https://edition.cnn.com/2020/06/01/business/moderna-vaccine-stock-sales-invs/index.html
Gilead tried to claim its pre-existing drug by given ‘orphan status’, giving it special protection owing to the fact the drug would be useful to a tiny number of patients – the very opposite of a pandemic. (9/12) https://www.ft.com/content/9fea4f1c-6dba-11ea-89df-41bea055720b
And Astra Zeneca has taken a vaccine being developed on a nonexclusive, royalty-free basis… and patented it. (10/12) £ https://www.ft.com/content/c474f9e1-8807-4e57-9c79-6f4af145b686
It doesn’t have to be this way. We’re excited by the vaccine trials, and amazed by the scientists who got us here. Imagine if the drive for profit was removed from the equation. Imagine if we could replace cutthroat competition and secrecy with collaboration and openness (11/12)
Imagine if our research was driven solely by the desire to rid the world of disease and suffering, starting with the most serious and deadly conditions… Seize the opportunity. Get involved. Make it happen. #PeoplesVaccine @peoplesvaccine (12/12) https://act.globaljustice.org.uk/make-any-covid-19-vaccine-affordable-all?_ga=2.47135655.1034766733.1607020810-258524614.1587645089
