““The reason we have the vaccine success is because of capitalism, because of greed my friends,” Boris Johnson reportedly told Conservative MPs, before pleading “forget I said that.””
“Johnson claimed the vaccine breakthrough was brought about by “giant corporations that wanted to give good returns to shareholders.” But nothing could be further from the truth. The British government, like other governments, invested heavy public funds into the research and development of vaccines, assuming most of the risk in the process.”
“The AstraZeneca jab was actually developed by scientists from the University of Oxford, a publicly-funded institution, working with scientists from a range of backgrounds, including many educated in state schools. Those scientists had initially wanted to make their vaccine patent-free, before AstraZeneca entered the scene, effectively privatizing the research.”
“The vaccines have been brought to market thanks to tens of thousands of trial volunteers who risked their health by putting themselves forward, not out of greed, but out of a desire to end this pandemic and help their families and communities. And the rollout is being managed by the UK’s National Health Service (NHS), a world-class public healthcare system that, despite market-driven reforms in recent years, exists entirely outside the logic of the market.”
“Greed, however, drove Big Pharma companies to privatize vaccines developed with public resources, and patent lifesaving medicines, in an effort to keep a grip on their monopolies. As a result, pharmaceutical giants sold these jabs almost exclusively to rich countries, allowing the U.K. to secure enough doses to vaccinate its population three times over.”
“The U.K., U.S., and the EU — home to the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies — have blocked attempts led by India and South Africa to temporarily waive patents on Covid-19 vaccines. A waiver would, they claimed, hurt “incentives” — or profits, in plain English.”
“AstraZeneca is not the only greedy company in the vaccine race. Many other corporations have also happily taken public resources, sold virtually their entire vaccine stock to rich countries, and are now looking forward to securing sky-high profit margins. Pfizer is on target to make more than $4 billion clear profit this year, and Moderna’s executives are raking in hundreds of millions of dollars based on the company’s rocketing share price.”
Read more: COVID-19: Greed Drove Big Pharma Companies to Privatize Vaccines
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