Pharmaceutical companies Pfizer, BioNTech and Moderna are earning a total of more than $ 1,000 (€ 874) per second from the Covid-19 vaccines they have developed, while vaccination coverage in the world’s poorest countries remains low, according to People’s Vaccine. Alliance “study.
The organization estimates that the three companies will make a combined pre-tax profit of $ 34 billion this year, the equivalent of more than $ 1,000 per second, $ 65,000 per minute or $ 93.5 million per day.
The study found that companies sold most of the Covid-19 vaccine they developed to rich countries, while low-income countries were neglected.
“It’s absurd that only a few companies make millions of dollars every hour, while only 2% of people in low-income countries are fully vaccinated against the coronavirus,” the People’s Vaccine Alliance said.
The organization reports that Pfizer and BioNTech provided less than 1% of their total vaccine supplies to low-income countries, while Moderna supplied only 0.2%.
The behavior of these three companies is different from that of AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson, which provided their vaccines on a non-profit basis.
The People’s Vaccine Alliance also points out that, despite receiving more than $ 8 billion in public funding, Pfizer, BioNTech and Moderna have not responded to calls for vaccine development technology to be transferred to low- and middle-income manufacturers, which would significantly improve supplies, lower prices and save millions of lives.
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