COVID-19 Vaccine Developers Want to Keep Getting Billions in Public Money With No Strings Attached
Drug companies have received over $10 billion from the US government for COVID-19 vaccine production. Yet those companies weren’t required to offer their vaccines at fair prices or share intellectual property rights — and they want to keep it that way.
Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine. (Marco Verch / Flickr)
When the US government awarded over $10 billion in contracts and advance purchase commitments to drug companies working on COVID-19 vaccines and treatments, it did not require the recipients of government money to agree to offer their products at fair prices or share intellectual property rights to enable faster production.
Now, two of the companies awarded those contracts — Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson — are trying to prevent shareholders from voting on resolutions to require the companies to disclose information about the impact of government funding on vaccine access.
The US government has purchased two hundred million doses of the Pfizer vaccine and one hundred million doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccines, for about $20 and $10 per dose, respectively.
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