Statement: The pharmaceutical industry is making record profits
The hashtag #pfizergate has been circulating on social media, claiming that the COVID-19 pandemic has become a gold mine for the pharmaceutical industry. The head of the World Union of Physicians, Frank-Ulrich Montgomery, also spoke of “indecent profits for vaccine manufacturers.” Is it true?
Verification of the facts: The statement is incorrect
It is true that the turnover of BioNTech and Pfizer has greatly increased. That of the biotech company from Mainz has grown from half a billion euros in 2020 to more than 17 billion in 2021. And shares of BioNTech jumped from 11 euros in October 2019 to 153 euros in early February this year.
As for Pfizer – in one year the American concern has improved its turnover by 95 percent. Of the $ 81 billion turnover in 2021, about $ 36 billion is due to the COVID-19 vaccine, developed in collaboration with BioNTech.
In the shadow of BioNTech and Pfizer, the Swiss manufacturer of PCR and rapid antigen tests, Roche, also made a good profit. The turnover of the pharmaceutical company has grown in 2021 by 9 percent to 59 billion euros. 28 percent of this turnover is due to the company’s activities related to diagnostics, which includes tests for COVID-19. However, it is also true that the pharmaceutical industry has been booming for 20 years. According to Statista, global drug sales increased from $ 390 billion to $ 1.27 trillion between 2001 and 2020.
Therefore, the consulting company Ernst & Young considers the growing turnover of individual pharmaceutical companies as a temporary phenomenon. “In 2021, the turnover of the five most popular vaccines amounted to $ 57 billion, and in 2026 it is expected to fall to $ 15 billion,” analyst Alexander Newken told the State Duma. For comparison: the turnover of the five most important drugs against cancer has reached $ 40 billion in 2021, and the forecast for 2026 is a turnover of $ 68 billion.
Claim: Manufacturers are earning a lot from government vaccine orders
Medicines, vaccines, rapid tests – pharmaceutical companies are overwhelmed with orders. And critics accuse the governments of industrialized nations of helping producers get rich with public funds. Aaron Siri of the New York law firm Siri & Glimstad describes this business model as “crazy”. “The US government is giving Pfizer and Moderna billions, giving them immunity in case of disability or if the drugs do not work, while advertising them for free,” he wrote on Twitter.
Verification of the facts: The statement is true
The fact is that the pandemic costs a lot of money to taxpayers. Pharmaceutical companies continue to receive huge orders – especially from vaccine manufacturers. By December 16, 2021 alone, Germany had ordered 554 million doses of vaccine for 4 billion euros. And 7.58 billion euros have been spent on COVID tests.
In addition, Germany has been involved in the development of $ 1.5 billion worth of vaccines against COVID-19, which were intended mainly for private companies. The data are from a study by the Center for Global Health at the Higher Institute for International Research and Development in Geneva. By comparison, compare the billions of public funds for vaccines, diagnostics and research with the € 170 billion in aid during the pandemic. That is exactly what the German government has spent on helping companies and workers affected by the pandemic. Hospitals have been helped by 17 billion euros – for example, to compensate for unrealized income from patient admissions or to provide more intensive care beds.
Claim: Pharmaceutical companies jealously guard their patents
The hashtag #VaccineApartheid draws attention to the problem of unequal access to vaccines against COVID-19. The British NGO Global Justice Now has calculated that the BioNTech / Pfizer vaccine alone has generated 7 times the turnover of all low-income governments for health care. Against this background, the WHO and many humanitarian organizations are pushing for the release of patents for COVID vaccines.
Verification of the facts: The statement is incorrect
Some pharmaceutical companies have complied with this request. Pfizer and BioNTech are not among them, but they donate vaccines. The Swedish-British company AstraZeneca sells its vaccine at a price that corresponds to the cost of the drug. In addition, the company has agreed with many developing countries on voluntary licensing and free technology transfer. The American concern Moderna has not released the patent of its vaccine against COVID-19, but refuses to collect fees while the pandemic continues.
Written by Astrid Prange
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