Big Pharma Is Making a Killing From Vaccine Apartheid
With the spread of the new Omicron variant and low levels of vaccination throughout much of the world, there’s still no real end to COVID in sight. It’s bad news for global public health — but great news for big pharmaceutical companies.
Army specialist Angel Laureano holds a vial of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, on December 14, 2020. (Lisa Ferdinando / US Department of Defense via Wikimedia Commons)
With the emergence of yet another COVID-19 variant, there’s no end to the global pandemic in sight. It’s bad news for everyone who hoped that 2022 might bring about a return to some kind of normalcy, or see the end of the kinds of restrictions and punitive travel bans now being reintroduced. It’s decidedly good news, on the other hand, for a few big pharmaceutical companies who have already made a killing from vaccines and are set to reap big gains as variants like Omicron continue to proliferate.
Moderna and Pfizer have added billions to their market capitalizations in a matter of days since news of Omicron first broke amid an anticipated demand for booster shots and, by extension, huge profits. 2021 has already been a banner year for the various pharma companies who’ve successfully made their brands synonymous with the distribution of vaccines — Pfizer’s profits jumping some 124 percent in the first three quarters of the year when compared to 2020 and Johnson & Johnson’s some 24 percent.
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