Pfizer has previously been accused of \u201cpandemic profiteering\u201d over the huge profits it has generated from coronavirus-related medicines over the past two years. It made almost $15bn in sales in only three months from the Covid-19 vaccine it developed with Germany\u2019s BioNTech and its new Covid pill for people who are at high risk of severe disease.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are living in a time where science is increasingly demonstrating the ability to take on the world\u2019s most devastating diseases,\u201d Albert Bourla, Pfizer\u2019s chief executive, said. \u201cUnfortunately, there exists a tremendous health equity gap in our world that determines which of us can use these innovations and which of us cannot.\u201d<\/p>\n
He told the WEF gathering in Switzerland: \u201cI\u2019m certain that the other pharmaceutical companies will follow. I\u2019ve spoken to several of the CEOs and they want to be part of it. So medicines will be available I hope but it\u2019s not going to be enough. We need to also work on the ground for diagnosis, treatments, and for that we need the help of WHO, Doctors without Borders and many other organisations.\u201d<\/p>\n
In Davos, George Poe Willliams, a nurse from Liberia, staged a \u201cclap for pharma profits\u201d in protest at the profits made by drugmakers, some of which, including Pfizer, refuse to waive patents on Covid-19 vaccines.<\/p>\n
Williams said: \u201cIf I wanted to earn what Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla made last year, I would have to work every single day until 6100 AD. But what makes me really furious is that Bourla and many of his billionaire buddies here at WEF are doing all they can to block our demands for a patent waiver \u2013 just so they can make even more money.\u201d<\/p>\n Bourla received $24m in pay, perks and stock options for 2021 when the company\u2019s full-year profit more than doubled, up 15% on 2020.<\/p>\n Pfizer has said others would struggle to produce its mRNA vaccine \u2013 one of only two on the market \u2013 as it involves more than 280 materials from 86 suppliers in 19 countries. Moderna, which makes the other mRNA Covid jab, has promised not to enforce its coronavirus vaccine patents in some low- and middle-income countries.<\/p>\n Under its new initiative, Pfizer is working closely with healthcare officials in Rwanda, Ghana, Malawi, Senegal and Uganda to provide expertise to support diagnosis, education and training of doctors and nurses and improvements to infrastructure to ensure all medicines and vaccines can reach those in need. Lessons learned from these five countries will then be applied to the rollout to the other 40 countries.<\/p>\n Appearing alongside Bourla was Paul Kagame, the president of Rwanda, who said: \u201cRapid and affordable access to the most advanced medicines and vaccines is the cornerstone of global health equity. Pfizer\u2019s commitment under the accord sets a new standard which we hope to see emulated by others.\u201d<\/p>\n Lazarus Chakwera, the president of Malawi, called it a \u201chistoric and unprecedented accord\u201d that brings together decision-makers from governments, the private sector and civil society. \u201cIt is not a handout but a real partnership\u201d that puts \u201chuman progress ahead of business profits and political posturing\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n Pfizer is working with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to develop new products such as vaccines to prevent the deadly Group B streptococcus, and for respiratory syncytial virus, which can be serious for children and older people.<\/p>\n Also on the panel, Bill Gates said: \u201cThis type of accord is a very good model, it\u2019s going to get medicines out \u2026 Global health equity has made progress; we saw with Covid, we\u2019re not there.\u201d<\/p>\n The Microsoft co-founder told the WEF: \u201cThe Ukrainian situation is stretching the world\u2019s resources and we see that in terms of resources for health and food, and availability of fertiliser. The tragedy of the war goes far beyond the battlefield The pandemic was a setback, we have more malaria deaths now than we had three years ago, routine vaccination numbers went down a fair bit.\u201d<\/p>\n The billionaire and philanthropist said the dream was to make a powerful malaria vaccine, as the vaccine funded by the Gates foundation and developed by GSK was too short in its duration and protection. Pfizer has announced it is to supply all its current and future patent-protected medicines and vaccines on a not-for-profit basis to 45 lower-income countries and is talking to other big drugmakers about similar steps. Announcing an \u201caccord for a healthier world\u201d at the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos, the New York-based pharma […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":22448,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_post_source_name":"","_post_source_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[4836,11261,4342,11941,6762,5717,7040,287,5313,5222,6763,5200,9379,8205,11403,5257,6144,423,8031,1572,6621,3037,6496,3545,3577,6759,66,192,9923,12634,8995,5910,10954,1988,8648,1858,2669,10742,9833,11352,7806,5957,5612,990,3230,7406,11973,5485,456,5956,6758,11081,3805,5561,5807,1573,2381,1749,6764,6327,5348,6761,6262,1064,5555,7231,6348,5223,6662,5251,9381,3954,10415,36,1012,594],"class_list":["post-22447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health-fitness","tag-access","tag-accused","tag-afghanistan","tag-bill","tag-bill-melinda-gates-foundation","tag-billionaire","tag-biontech","tag-children","tag-coronavirus","tag-covid","tag-covid-vaccine","tag-covid-19","tag-davos","tag-diagnosis","tag-disease","tag-doctors","tag-drugs","tag-education","tag-equity","tag-ethiopia","tag-europe","tag-fertiliser","tag-food","tag-founder","tag-future","tag-george-poe-williams","tag-germany","tag-ghana","tag-gsk","tag-health","tag-infrastructure","tag-initiative","tag-international","tag-liberia","tag-malaria","tag-malaria-vaccine","tag-malawi","tag-market","tag-meeting","tag-microsoft","tag-model","tag-moderna","tag-money","tag-new-york","tag-nurse","tag-nurses","tag-one","tag-pandemic","tag-paul-kagame","tag-pfizer","tag-pfizerdavos","tag-pharmaceutical","tag-president","tag-protest","tag-risk","tag-rwanda","tag-science","tag-senegal","tag-senegal-and-uganda","tag-stock","tag-switzerland","tag-the-president-of-rwanda","tag-tragedy","tag-uganda","tag-ukrainian","tag-union","tag-us","tag-vaccination","tag-vaccine","tag-war","tag-wef","tag-will","tag-work","tag-world","tag-world-economic-forum","tag-who"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22447"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22447\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"At](\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/e9a1a427fb8fda708f7de989e9b54761b6883148\/0_0_1875_1125\/master\/1875.jpg?width=445&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=904aa5e3dabab2e6c747319cbc09a9f4\")
<\/div>
\ntheguardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"