Big pharma's pledges aren't enough

It’s exactly a month since supporters from Just Treatment joined hundreds of others to bombard the offices of Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca with phone calls and Tweets, demanding they sign up to the World Health Organisation’s COVID19 Technology Access Pool (C-TAP).

We take a look at what’s happened since - and what’s coming next.

What’s the problem?

There’s no denying it - the development and delivery of the first COVID19 vaccines in less than a year is an absolutely incredible achievement. But we still face enormous challenges in vaccinating people in the UK and elsewhere as quickly as we need to bring the pandemic under control.

The UK government has joined others around the world in handing control over these publicly funded vaccines to big pharmaceutical companies. This means these companies get to profit from our investment and decide who gets access and at what price. Right now, the wealthiest countries like the US and UK have hoarded enough doses to vaccinate their populations nearly three times over, while 9 out of 10 people in the poorest countries will miss out.

No-one is safe until everyone is safe - so we need to vaccinate as many people as we can, as quickly as we can, in the UK and globally.

What are we calling for?

To speed the rollout of these vaccines we need to bring an end to big pharma’s monopoly powers over them. Their control over the supply and price of the vaccines will generate large profits for the pharmaceutical companies, but fatally undermine the COVID response.

Already in the UK we’re seeing a lack of supply threaten the vaccination programme.

We want pharma companies to join a World Health Organisation initiative called the COVID Technology Access Pool (C-TAP). This initiative will ensure sharing of science, technological know-how and intellectual property to drive down prices, expand production and prioritise global access.

So far the companies have refused, preferring to join other initiatives that don’t rely on them sharing their knowledge. This fact means that they will also fail to deliver the amount of vaccines we need to make sure that no-one, wherever they live, dies without access.

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Exactly one month ago today, Just Treatment supporters joined those from Global Justice Now, Oxfam, Universities Allied for Essential Medicines, STOPAIDS and others for the People’s Vaccine day of action. We bombarded Pfizer and AstraZeneca’s offices with phonecalls, asking if they would join C-TAP. Colleagues in the US targeted the Moderna offices on the same day. We signed onto a letter to the CEOs of the thirteen major pharmaceutical companies involved in developing COVID19 vaccines, alongside 100 other organisations, asking them to share their vaccines.

How have companies responded?

The lack of a response from all but two of the companies addressed in the CEO letter (GSK and Moderna) is why we must keep taking action to push them harder. Momentum is growing: just yesterday, top US scientist Dr Fauci - the Chief Medical Advisor to the President in the new Biden administration - came out in support of the C-TAP.

Pharmaceutical companies are by no means untouchable - we know that they care about their reputation and will respond to public pressure. We need to keep that pressure up. You can help do this by retweeting our latest tweet to them, helping to amplify the demand that they #JoinCTAP.

Why aren’t the pharmaceutical companies’ pledges enough?

The major pharmaceutical companies that are involved in developing COVID-19 vaccines have all made different pledges, from non profit pricing for low income countries to joining an initiative called COVAX (also run by the WHO), which aims to supply vaccines to low income countries at reduced prices.

But their actions fall far short of what is needed. Rich countries continue to cut bilateral supply deals with pharmaceutical companies which undermine COVAX and limit supply to poorer nations. There are limits to non profit price commitments too - these are time limited for most high and middle income countries and are likely to end in July 2021. In the case of AstraZeneca, their ‘at cost’ price commitment actually means ‘at cost’ plus 20%.

Big pharma’s monopoly control over these vaccines means that they continue to control supply and price. But to end this pandemic we must ensure that there are enough vaccines for everyone, at an affordable price. Billions of pounds of public funding has gone into these vaccines - the outcome shouldn’t be determined by big pharma.

What’s next?

We’ll be keeping the pressure up on big pharma. Here are three ways you can get involved.

Elizabeth Baines