What you need to know about the AstraZeneca vaccine

This has been written by Izzie, who is a Just Treatment patient leader.

This week it was announced that the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine is up to 90% effective. After shielding for eight months, this news - following that of the Pfizer/BioNtech and Moderna vaccines in the last couple of weeks - has left me with a huge sense of relief and excitement. 

Due to my Cystic Fibrosis (CF), I fall into the clinically extremely vulnerable (CEV), high-risk category, so I have gone 35 weeks without seeing most of my friends and family. Covid-19 places a serious risk to my already damaged lungs so I will remain shielding until I receive a vaccine. 

Whilst this news left me hopeful for the future, there is still a long way to go. Big pharma has come out looking like the hero, but they are still dictating our COVID response. 

I have experienced pharma greed first-hand. The UK CF community fought for five years to gain access to the life changing medicine Orkambi, after pharmaceutical company Vertex had attached such a high price to the drug that the NHS simply couldn’t afford it. After years of waiting and tireless campaigning, many lost hope as loved ones with CF died whilst waiting for access.  

With the Covid-19 vaccine, big pharma still holds the power. 

Public money has been poured into research and development for the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine in a way that we have never seen before, but these contributions are being ignored as pharma companies seek to make high profits. 

Despite AstraZeneca saying that all their costs will be covered, they still have monopoly control, giving them power over who gains access and at what price this will be. They have pledged to charge a ‘cost price’ for the vaccine during the pandemic (which, coincidentally, turns out to actually mean cost price plus a 20% profit margin), but their contracts give them the power to declare the pandemic over by July 2021. Ultimately allowing them to charge the NHS and other healthcare systems high prices for the vaccine. 

Despite public proclamations about supplying poorer countries with the vaccine by signing up to an initiative called COVAX, in reality only a fraction of the vaccine supply will be given to them.  

This is in part due to rich countries like the UK buying up potential vaccine candidates, leaving poorer countries behind and allowing us to only save half the lives we could otherwise. This risks our chances of ending the pandemic. 

The need for a vaccine is clearly essential, and until we all have access, the whole world will remain on hold. Access to the vaccine must be affordable and fair. We cannot burden our health care systems any further and cannot hoard doses of the vaccine whilst people continue to die all over the world. 

There is still no clarity around the contracts between AstraZeneca and Oxford, or AstraZeneca and the British government. This matters because unless we know what’s in the contract, how can we know if we’re getting a fair deal? How do we know the basis on which pricing is being decided, or how the ‘end’ of the pandemic is being agreed? 

By sharing the patenting rights and knowledge of how to make the vaccine with suppliers globally, AstraZeneca could maximise supply and minimise the price - forever.

The pandemic has shown us just how important our healthcare systems are and how vital it is that access to drugs is equitable and fair. If we allow big pharma to carry on with business as usual, our NHS may be pushed to breaking point. 

We need a People’s Vaccine, and for that we must make sure that the agreements the government is making with drug companies are open and transparent, that the money that’s going into vaccine development is being tied to conditions that will ensure affordability and access, and that instead of hoarding vaccines, we’re participating in international efforts to ensure everyone who needs this vaccine can get it.  

Our safety depends on the safety of everyone - unless the virus is under control everywhere it can’t be under control anywhere. We must come together to ensure that people's health comes before profits. Pharma companies should not hold monopolies that allow them to profit on our suffering and dictate the value of our lives. 

The Oxford vaccine is the perfect candidate for a true People’s Vaccine - if only AstraZeneca would share their publicly funded knowledge with the world. We need to end harmful monopolies on COVID so patients everywhere including the UK come before profits. 

Call on Boris Johnson to publish the AstraZeneca deal!