This AGM season, we've turned the heat up on big pharma profiteering

Credit: Jess Hurd

We’ve had a busy couple of weeks at Just Treatment! Amidst the flurry of pharmaceutical Annual General Meetings (AGMs) we have taken a number of actions to protest big pharma’s excessive profiteering which is costing lives across the world. The past fortnight saw us on the doorsteps of both Pfizer and GSK in the UK, while activists in the US and South Africa also took to the streets and filed shareholder resolutions to call out pharma companies for making billions while restricting people’s access to lifesaving drugs.

On 28th April, as Pfizer was holding its virtual AGM, a Just Treatment team consisting of staff Organiser Aasiya and patient leaders Rajni and Sakina made their way to Pfizer headquarters in the UK. They joined friends from Global Justice Now, Act Up London, STOPAIDS and Students for Global Health to send a clear message that Pfizer’s excessive profiteering while restricting access to their COVID vaccines and treatments is indefensible, and must stop.

The action consisted of delivering wheelbarrows and sacks of fake money to highlight their immense profiteering at the expense of human lives. Patient leader Sakina gave a powerful speech on how she lost her father to COVID-19 at a time when she had already been vaccinated here, yet he had not been able to access a single dose in Tanzania. Members of the public were slowing down to look, taking photos and even giving a few heartening honks of support! Seemingly scared to engage with protesters, Pfizer had preemptively closed the gates and summoned police. But we will not allow them to keep running away from justice, and will keep taking action until they do the right thing. The action has since been reported in several media pieces - including the Guardian!

Just Treatment patient leader Rajni, who was there on the day, said "the atmosphere was fantastic and gathering with like-minded people was such an amazing feeling. What we are doing may sometimes feel insignificant, but it isn’t and is just one part of a much bigger movement."

On the same date, Dr Tedros of the World Health Organisation addressed Moderna's virtual AGM through the help of our friends at Oxfam. This pharmaceutical manufacturer has raked in revenues of $18bn in 2021 from the COVID vaccine alone - not bad for a company that has no other medical products in its repertoire. But like so many others in the industry, its products are reserved for the highest bidder.

By the end of 2021, 85% of its overall production was going to the richest countries - accounting for only 12% of world's population and leaving the global south at the mercy of donors. As Dr Tedros said “By every metric, the current donations-based model has failed – it leaves countries at the mercy of rich countries and profit-driven countries; exacerbates on-the-ground distributional challenges; and leaves the world with the same inequities and vulnerabilities that have plagued the global response since the start of the pandemic.” Moderna’s COVID vaccine - an essential medicine of our time - is priced like a luxury good.

The following week saw our staff Organiser Wiz join friends from Act Up London in protesting outside GlaxoSmithKline’s (GSK) in person AGM. GSK owns ViiV - a HIV focused drug company, which has recently manufactured a new injectable version of the drug PrEP (aimed at preventing HIV transmission). The drug, called CAB-LA, is a potential game changer - especially for population groups like young women in East & Southern Africa that daily PrEP tablets haven't worked for. 

CAB-LA is given as an injection 6 times a year. But the price in the US is $22k - that’s $3700 per injection. And they're refusing to licence to generic drug companies, even though the generic price could be as low as $2.60 per injection. So we unfurled a giant banner outside the AGM shaming GSK for their criminal profiteering. At the same time, hundreds of Just Treatment supporters were tweeting at GSK and leaving negative reviews on their Facebook page to call on them to drop the price of CAB-LA and share the tech. 

No matter where we live, how old we are or where we are from, we all deserve high quality healthcare. But giant pharmaceutical companies like Moderna, Pfizer and GSK are putting profit over people’s health and lives every single day. Just Treatment exists to hold these greedy corporations to account, shine a spotlight on the injustices faced by patients and demand we all get the care we need. 

We have seen how collective organising during the AIDS crisis won global access to affordable HIV medication. We have taken on multi-billion drug companies in the past and forced them to back down. We know that we can - and must - win again.