We Can’t Trust Big Pharma to Make Enough Vaccines

 

 

"Incumbent vaccine makers might, for rational economic reasons, choose not to make more Covid-19 vaccines. This point is somewhat counterintuitive, but, to put it bluntly, perpetuating the pandemic is better for business than ending it. Vaccine makers have strong financial incentives to keep the virus spreading, at least to some extent. (Matt Stoller has aptly described these incentives as “ghoulish.”) This observation is no conspiracy theory; the companies themselves have acknowledged the profits to be secured over a medium- to long-term horizon, if the virus endures. Pfizer’s CFO announced a few months ago that the company “sees significant opportunity” in Covid’s becoming endemic in the United States, Canada, and other rich countries—a recurring, perhaps even permanent, fixture of our lives—which could make Covid-19 vaccines a durable “franchise” for the company. Particularly devastating from a public health perspective, and particularly appealing from a franchise-building perspective, are so-called variants of concern, which may evade existing immunity. Pfizer’s CFO pointed specifically to “these emerging variants” in response to a Wall Street analyst’s question about “the need to revaccinate annually.” Pfizer has also said that it plans, at some point in the foreseeable future, to end its so-called “low-cost” “pandemic pricing”—approximately $20 per dose—and begin charging more “normal” prices—perhaps as much as $175 per dose. Moderna’s CEO has similarly stated that Moderna expects to sell annual Covid-19 vaccine booster shots for the foreseeable future, as the virus is “not leaving the planet.” Moderna’s CEO went on to contemplate Moderna selling an annual booster shot “at your local CVS store” “that would protect you against the variant of concern against Covid and the seasonal flu strain.”

As the first-mover vaccine makers have admitted, demand for lucrative booster shots in rich countries will depend, at least in part, on the emergence of new variants of concern. Those variants will emerge if—and only if—the virus continues to spread to some extent. This simple fact gives the incumbent vaccine makers strong, and horrifying, incentives to leave people—even large numbers of people—unvaccinated. (Or, perhaps, half-vaccinated, as people who receive just one dose of a two-dose regimen remain at substantial risk of infection and illness). Pfizer’s and Moderna’s projections of handsome profits flowing from their annual booster shot franchises rely, quietly, on the prospect of unvaccinated people continuing to become infected by SARS-CoV-2. Their investors are already coming to rely on these projections."

more in the article by MATTHEW HEADER