PARIS – Profits from Covid-19 jabs have helped at least nine people become billionaires, said a campaign group today, calling for an end to pharmaceutical corporations’ “monopoly control” on vaccine technology.
“Between them, the nine new billionaires have a combined net wealth of US$19.3 billion (RM79.9 billion), enough to fully vaccinate all people in low-income countries 1.3 times over,” said The People’s Vaccine Alliance in a statement.
The alliance, a network of organisations and activists campaigning for an end to property rights and patents for inoculations, said its figures are based on Forbes Rich List data.
“These billionaires are the human face of the huge profits many pharmaceutical corporations are making from the monopoly they hold on these vaccines,” said Anna Marriott of charity Oxfam, which is part of the alliance.
In addition to the new mega-rich, eight existing billionaires have seen their combined wealth increase by US$32.2 billion thanks to the vaccine roll-out, said the alliance.
Topping the list of new vaccine billionaires are Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel and his BioNTech counterpart Ugur Sahin.
Three other neo-billionaires are the co-founders of Chinese vaccine company CanSino Biologics.
The research comes ahead of the G20 Global Health Summit tomorrow, which has been a lightning rod for growing calls to temporarily remove intellectual property protections on Covid-19 vaccines.
Proponents said doing so will boost production in developing countries and address the dramatic inequity in access.
The United States and influential figures like Pope Francis back the idea of a global waiver on patent protections.
At a Paris summit on Tuesday seeking to boost financing in Africa amid the pandemic, French President Emmanuel Macron called for the removal of “all these constraints in terms of intellectual property, which blocks the production of certain types of vaccines”.
The European Commission yesterday said it will be a “constructive” voice in World Trade Organisation talks on the issue.
“The highly effective vaccines we have are thanks to massive amounts of taxpayers’ money, so it can’t be fair that private individuals are cashing in, while hundreds of millions face second and third waves completely unprotected,” said Heidi Chow, senior policy and campaign manager at Global Justice Now, which helped analyse the billionaire data.
“As thousands of people die each day in India, it is utterly repugnant... to put the interests of the billionaire owners of big pharma ahead of the desperate needs of millions.”
Manufacturers have stressed that patent protection is not the limiting factor in ramping up vaccine production.
They said a wide range of issues – from the set-up of manufacturing sites and sourcing of raw materials to availability of qualified personnel – are holding up the manufacturing process. – AFP, May 20, 2021
.jpg)
.jpg)
