Demand grows for firms to share vaccine recipes and technology as billionaire pharma bosses convene for ‘Big Pharma Davos’
New figures from the Peoples Vaccine Alliance reveal that the companies behind two of the most successful COVID vaccines – Pfizer, BioNTech, and Moderna – are making combined profits of $65,000 every minute. The figures, based on the latest company reports, are released as CEOs from pharmaceutical industry meet for the annual STAT summit – the equivalent of a ‘Big Pharma Davos’ – this week.
These companies have sold the majority of doses to rich countries, leaving low- income countries out in the cold. Pfizer and BioNTech have delivered less than one percent of their total vaccine supplies to low-income countries, while Moderna has delivered just 0.2 percent. Meanwhile, 98 percent of people in low income countries have not been fully vaccinated.
“It is obscene that just a few companies are making millions of dollars in profit every single hour, while just two percent of people in low-income countries have been fully vaccinated against coronavirus,” said Maaza Seyoum of the African Alliance and People’s Vaccine Alliance Africa. “Pfizer, BioNTech and Moderna have used their monopolies to prioritize the most profitable contracts with the richest governments, leaving low-income countries out in the cold.”
Despite receiving public funding of over $8 billion, the three corporations have refused calls to urgently transfer vaccine technology and know-how with capable producers in low- and middle-income countries via the World Health Organization (WHO), a move that could increase global supply, drive down prices and save millions of lives. In Moderna’s case, this is despite explicit pressure from the White House and requests from the WHO that the company collaborate in and help accelerate its plan to replicate the Moderna vaccine for wider production at its mRNA hub in South Africa.
While Albert Bourla, the CEO of Pfizer, described the call to share vaccine recipes ‘dangerous nonsense,’ the WHO emergency use approval of the Indian vaccine Covaxin earlier this month is clear evidence that developing countries have the capacity and expertise.
“Contrary to what Pfizer’s CEO says, the real nonsense is claiming the experience and expertise to develop and manufacture life-saving medicines and vaccines does not exist in developing countries. This is just a false excuse that pharmaceutical companies are hiding behind to protect their astronomical profits,” said Anna Marriott, Oxfam’s Health Policy Manager. “It is also a complete failure of government to allow these companies to maintain monopoly control and artificially constrain supply in the midst of a pandemic while so many people in the world are yet to be vaccinated.”
Based on company financial statements, the Alliance estimates that Pfizer, BioNTech and Moderna will make pre-tax profits of $34 billion this year between them, which works out as over a thousand dollars a second, $65,000 a minute or $93.5 million a day. The monopolies these companies hold have produced five new billionaires during the pandemic, with a combined net wealth of $35.1 billion.
The People’s Vaccine Alliance, which has 80 members including the African Alliance, Global Justice Now, Oxfam, and UNAIDS, is calling for the pharmaceutical corporations to immediately suspend intellectual property rights for COVID vaccines, tests, treatments, and other medical tools by agreeing to the proposed waiver of the TRIPS Agreement at the World Trade Organization.
The Alliance is also calling on governments, including the United States, to use all their legal and policy tools to demand that pharmaceutical companies share COVID-19 data, know-how, and technology with the WHO’s COVID-19 Technology Access Pool and South Africa mRNA Technology Transfer Hub.
More than 100 nations, led by South Africa and India, and with the support of the US, have been calling for the TRIPS waiver, which also has the support of more than 100 past and present world leaders and Nobel laureates.
Despite this, other rich nations, including the UK and Germany, are still blocking the proposal, putting the interest of pharmaceutical companies over what’s best for the world. This issue is set to dominate the World Trade Organization Ministerial Summit to be held in Geneva from November 30 to December 3.
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Notes to editors:
- A People’s Vaccine Alliance report from October 21 found that Moderna has only delivered 0.2 percent of their total vaccine supply to low-income countries and Pfizer/BioNTech has delivered less than 1 percent.
- In their Q3 financial statement, Pfizer forecast $36bn in vaccine revenue for 2021. Gross profit from the revenue is split 50/50 with BioNTech. Pfizer guidance for their income before tax (after splitting profit with BioNTech) is ‘High-20s as a Percentage of Revenues.’ A conservative 25% margin would bring Pfizer’s profit before tax to $9bn in 2021 from the Comirnaty Covid vaccine.
- In BioNTech’s Q3 financial statement they forecast €16-17 billion in vaccine revenue for 2021. In the 9 months ending September 30 the company made € 10.3bn profit before tax on €13.4bn, revenue giving a 77% profit margin. Using a conservative €16bn forecasted revenue for the full year, we therefore estimate that at a 77% profit margin, BioNTech will make €12.3bn in pre-tax profit in 2021 – or $14.7bn using the 2021 average exchange rate.
- Moderna’s Q3 profit before tax for 9 months ending September 30 is $7.8bn on $11.2bn revenue giving a pre-tax profit margin of 70%. The company projects full year 2021 sales to be “between $15 billion and $18 billion”. Using the lower end of the estimate - 70% of $15bn is $10.5bn in profit for 2021. The vaccine is Moderna’s only commercial product.
- We therefore estimate the combined 2021 profit before tax for Moderna and