A popular vaccine? Drugmakers Should Benefit From COVID Vaccines Made Through State-Funded Research

AMY GOOD MAN: This is Democracy now! The quarantine report. I am Amy Goodman.

As the coronavirus pandemic escalates, a third major pharmaceutical company has injected good news into the race for a potential vaccine. It’s AstraZeneca. He says late stage testing shows his COVID-19 vaccine developed by the University of Oxford is [70%] effective. Last week, drug giants Pfizer and Moderna said their vaccines were almost 95% effective. The new vaccine made by Oxford-AstraZeneca may be easier to distribute than others because it does not need to be stored in ultra-freezing temperatures. It could also be cheaper because AstraZeneca has pledged not to make a profit during the pandemic and has agreed to price doses at around $ 2.50 each. The Associated Press reports that Pfizer’s vaccine costs around $ 20 a dose, while Moderna’s is $ 15 to $ 25, based on the companies’ agreements to supply their vaccines to the U.S. government. No less than 14 billion doses of vaccine would be needed to immunize everyone in the world.

Public Citizen, the company’s watchdog, says vaccines belong to the people, as Pfizer and Moderna’s vaccines relied heavily on findings from research funded by taxpayers, who actually paid twice, when the Trump administration also gave Moderna an additional $ 1.5 billion to get doses up front.

To find out more, we’re joined by Public Citizen President Rob Weissman.

Rob, welcome back Democracy now! Explain what it means to say that these vaccines should be owned by the world and not owned by a private company.

ROBERT WEISSMAN: Well, it turns out that the investment in these vaccines, like most drugs, was really bought by the taxpayer, by the government. In Pfizer’s case, they haven’t received any direct money from the government to complete their vaccine, but they rely heavily on a state-funded invention as a central part of what they’re trying to do. In the case of the Moderna vaccine, which should really be considered the National Institutes of Health-Moderna vaccine, the government actually owns part of the vaccine, we believe. He funded 100% of the development of Moderna. And like you said, they also now – the government pledged a billion and a half dollars to buy the vaccine, which we co-invented and paid for 100%. So these are vaccines in which the government has an investment interest, a stake in, in the case of Moderna, and therefore, when we think about how it is going to be bought and distributed and, most importantly, produced and supplied. in the United States, but all over the world, the government just has to say, “We’re going to exercise our powers.”

I will say, however, that even if the government did not pay for the vaccine, even though the inventions were not the product of public investment for many years, in light of the pandemic we should still say that we cannot tolerate patent monopolies giving companies the power to control who can manufacture the vaccine and how it will be supplied. What we should do in the United States and around the world is say, “This is a technology that the world needs, and we’re going to share it as widely as possible, to make sure we can produce as much. vaccines than us. need as quickly as possible, to quickly get not only the United States, but the whole world out of the pandemic. “

AMY GOOD MAN: So, now it’s really critical of how – you know, there’s a difference between vaccines and vaccinations, addressing this question of who gets vaccinated. You have Moderna and Pfizer vaccines. Both are double hits.

ROBERT WEISSMAN: Right.

AMY GOOD MAN: And the Pfizer vaccine should be kept at 100 degrees Fahrenheit below zero. Moderna doesn’t need to be kept that cold, but the Pfizer vaccine would require a whole new refrigeration. Even states in the United States say they don’t have the capacity to keep the cold out at this point, let alone developing countries.

ROBERT WEISSMAN: Yes, it’s true. There will be technical problems getting it distributed. But I have to say if the world cares, man, you fix the tech issues. The real tough limit we are facing right now is that there won’t be enough supply because these companies can’t do it fast enough. And if they try to license it to other partners, like they do, it will still be too slow. They’re going to spend too much time debating the details, and the licensees won’t be able to get enough of it.

So what does this mean? Well, that means people in developing countries are going to wait longer, maybe three, four, or even five years, to get the vaccine, which will hopefully be fully distributed in the United States over the next few years. next nine months or so. . We already have 170 million people in the developing world who have fallen into extreme poverty, less than $ 3.50 a day, since the start of the pandemic. So you are going to see these poorer countries crushed by an ongoing pandemic, when it is resolved in the rich countries. And, of course, you are going to have hundreds of thousands of lives lost that could be saved if the vaccine were distributed immediately.

So what is the solution? Well, we need more supply. And we could get more supply if the US government said, “We’re going to share this technology. Every manufacturer that has the ability, the ability to make a quality product, we’re going to show you how to do that and encourage you to do it as much as you can, as fast as you can. And we, the US government, are going to help build more facilities to do more, because the world cannot wait.

AMY GOOD MAN: So talk about what that would mean for all of these vaccines. Again, you have AstraZeneca. You have – and the Pfizer and Moderna vaccine would cost more. Johnson & Johnson will talk about their release. Also, what does not charge during the pandemic, but then charge mean? What could be put in place, where you have a situation in the world where everyone who wants a vaccine is guaranteed to get a vaccine?

ROBERT WEISSMAN: Well, what we should be saying – the United States is the leading power in this area, both as the most powerful country in the world and as the headquarters of two of those companies that developed these early vaccines. We should say we’re going to share the technology. We will share intellectual property rights, patents and other intellectual property rights and know-how. We’re actually going to show people, show companies how to make this vaccine, and do it through the World Health Organization, which has a facility in place to do it, do it directly with the companies. We will produce as quickly as possible. Pay Pfizer and Moderna something that we deem fair based on their research contributions and cost, but don’t let them exercise monopoly control. And if we do that, we could go global very quickly and get everyone vaccinated as quickly as possible.

AMY GOOD MAN: Rob, can you talk about the Serum Institute in India which can mass produce vaccines? Will they be able to have access to the know-how to manufacture these vaccines?

ROBERT WEISSMAN: Well, where we’re at right now is that the power is vested in the corporations, so it will depend on what kind of deals the corporations make. In fact, companies are licensing all over the world, but it’s too slow a process. And there is no transparency, so we don’t really know what the terms of these license agreements are, how much information and know-how they transfer, whether they allow a company like the big Indian manufacturers. to sell. outside of India, to the world. Do they limit the countries they can enter?

And then, as you allude to, what these companies say, “Well, we’ll do it at what we call a non-profit award – not really a non-profit, but what we call a profit award. non-profit – for a while, such as during the pandemic. But if there is a continued need for this vaccine – and we don’t know, it may require continuous injections – well, we are not committing to that nonprofit price for the long term. So they’re not just worried about the first year. They worry about what is going on in fourth and fifth year. And they try to control the technology so that they can make a profit for many years to come.

We simply cannot tolerate this. Pay them what we think is fair. Share the technology. Get everyone vaccinated. Because the alternative is which we are about to venture into, namely global vaccine apartheid, where people in rich countries have access to this vaccine, countries are collectively able to emerge from the pandemic, but inhabitants of poorer countries will live with it for years and years, with enormous consequences both for their health and for the well-being of their economies. And it’s just an absolutely intolerable situation.

AMY GOOD MAN: Rob, speaking of rich and poor, since President Trump signed the CARE Acting nearly eight months ago, benefits expired as the pandemic escalates, but Republicans in the Senate and White House have refused to push forward the multiple relief measures adopted by the Democratic-controlled House. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez went to the House on Friday to call on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for sending the Senate home for Thanksgiving without finalizing a coronavirus relief bill .

REPRESENTATIVE. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO–CORTEZ: Our country is hungry the week before Thanksgiving and the Senate has burst. I don’t care which party you are, it is an abandonment of our responsibilities as elected officials charged with acting in the confidence of the public.

AMY GOOD MAN: AOC wears all black. Public Citizen recently tweeted in all caps, “WHY IS THE SENATE SURE VACATION WHILE AMERICANS ARE DYING WITH NO RELIEF? We have 10 seconds, Rob Weissman.

ROBERT WEISSMAN: It is unacceptable. We have increasing hunger, increasing homelessness, tens of millions of people without work. The Senate refused to act on the bill that was passed by the House in May, and people will suffer. Hopefully we can get a deal done quickly, but it’s all on the feet of Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump.

AMY GOOD MAN: We have to stop there, Rob Weissman, President of Public Citizen. I am Amy Goodman. Thank you very much for joining us.