What's in the secret deal?
We want your MP to help find out what’s in the secret deal that has given big pharma company AstraZeneca billions of dollars and total control over a vaccine UK taxpayers paid to develop
Write to your MP by clicking here
Despite lockdown starting to lift, COVID19 is still taking lives in the UK and the pandemic continues to grow in other parts of the world. We might see life edging back towards normality around us but it seems likely we won’t be able to truly relax until we have an effective vaccine to prevent the spread of the virus.
So it should be a great news story that scientists at Oxford University - using funds from the UK taxpayer - have developed a promising vaccine that has the potential to control the pandemic and save thousands of lives. Across the country thousands of NHS workers are volunteering in a trial to assess whether the vaccine works. But despite being paid for with public funds, the vaccine is now under the control of a huge pharmaceutical corporation - AstraZeneca.
Overseen by the government, Oxford University did a deal that led to the big pharma company gaining control over the vaccine and securing nearly $2bn income from the UK, US and other governments for the first supplies. AstraZeneca’s boss Pascal Soriot, who earned £14.3 million last year (and has complained he’s not paid enough!), toured the media to celebrate the news - promising that they would charge a ‘not-for-profit’ price during the pandemic, and pledging to make supplies available for the developing world.
But there are huge unanswered questions about the deal - and we can’t find out the answers because it is completely secret. For example - who is verifying AstraZeneca’s not-for-profit pricing? And if this low price is only available during the pandemic, what happens when it is over? That could happen in a few months’ time. What price will the NHS pay then?
This deal is likely to give AstraZeneca a monopoly that means no one else can supply this medicine. As the vaccine is only likely to provide temporary protection - patients are likely to need to take it every year to stay safe. This means the NHS could be paying a huge, profit-maximising price set by AstraZeneca for millions of doses every year long into the future.
The special discount on the first few months of a mobile phone contract is nice - but no-one would sign a deal that gave O2 total freedom to charge whatever they liked once the first three months were up. It seems like that’s what’s happened with this vaccine and it's our NHS that will be paying the price to fuel AstraZeneca’s profits.
At this time of global crisis it is totally unacceptable that companies are trying to profit at the expense of our NHS from a vaccine we paid to develop. The least we deserve is transparency. Please write to your MP and get them to ask Boris Johnson - what price will the NHS pay for the vaccine once the pandemic is over? Ask them to tell AstraZeneca to publish the deal.
No secret deals. No profiteering from the pandemic. And no monopolies on COVID19 vaccines, treatments or tests.
Writ to your MP here