Covid vaccines: Will drug companies make bumper profits?
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-55170756
Thanks to the way these vaccines have been funded and the number of firms joining the race to make them, any opportunity to make big profits could be short-lived.
Who put the money in?
Due to the urgent need for the vaccine, governments and donors, have poured billions of pounds into projects to create and test them. Philanthropic organisations such as the Gates Foundation backed the quest as well as individuals including Alibaba founder Jack Ma and country music star Dolly Parton.
Firms that began work on vaccines for other diseases such as Zika and Sars had their fingers burnt. On the other hand, the market for flu' jabs, which is worth several billion dollars a year, suggests that if Covid-19, like flu, is here to stay and requires annual booster jabs, then it could be profitable for the firms that come up with the most effective, and most cost-effective products.
Some firms don't want to be seen to be profiting from the global crisis, especially after receiving so much outside funding. The large US drugmaker, Johnson & Johnson, and the UK's AstraZeneca, which is working with a University of Oxford-based biotech company, have pledged to sell the vaccine at a price that just covers their costs. AstraZeneca's currently looks set to be the cheapest at $4 (£3) per dose.
Should they be sharing their technology?
With so much at stake, there have been calls for the know-how behind the new vaccines to be pooled, so that other firms in India and South Africa, for example, can manufacture doses for their own markets.
Ellen 't Hoen, director of research group Medicines Law and Policy, says that should have been a condition of receiving public funding.
"I think it was unwise of our governments to hand over that money without strings attached," she says. Those that are selling to countries with deeper pockets will start to see a return on their investment, whereas AstraZeneca, despite having deals to supply the highest number of doses, will only cover its costs.
https://science.thewire.in/health/covid-19-big-pharma-taxpayer-funded-development-profiteering/
https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/companies/ideas-for-profit-what-the-second-covid-19-wave-means-for-domestic-pharma-companies-6761011.html Ideas For Profit | What the second covid-19 ‘wave’ means for domestic pharma companies? https://youtu.be/gNdkGUIb75Q
The Public Sector Is Crucial for Self-Reliance in Vaccines and Public Health https://science.thewire.in/health/covid-19-indian-psu-vaccines/
vaccine development and production has been one of India’s strengths for over a century, and the public sector has ensured we have been self-reliant and cost-effective. However, these enterprises were undermined by globalisation, and we began to depend more on imports. At the same time, privatisation increased our immunisation cost and facilitated the backdoor entry of frivolous vaccines.
Indeed, it took a piece of public interest litigation in the Supreme Court, and castigation by a parliamentary committee, to reopen three suspended vaccine PSUs in 2012: the Central Research Institute, Kasauli; the Pasteur Institute of India, Coonoor; and the BCG Vaccines Lab, Chennai.
These three labs, plus the King Institute of Preventive Medicine and Research in Chennai, had been set up by the British from the late 19th century – around the same time Waldemar Haffkine produced the world’s first vaccine against the plague in Bombay in 1896-1897. The labs have since developed and produced vaccines and antisera against diphtheria, polio, tetanus, typhoid, smallpox, cholera, tuberculosis, Japanese encephalitis and yellow fever, among other diseases.
The Government of India must revive its pre-liberalisation policy to become self-reliant in vaccine technology development and self-sufficient in vaccine production. It’s time to stop thinking that investing to modernise PSUs and helping them adhere to GMPs is a wasteful activity.
A dose of truth: The real story of India’s COVID-19 vaccination programme https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/health/a-dose-of-truth-the-real-story-of-india-s-covid-19-vaccination-programme-76548
In the report in The Hindu, Balaram Bhargava, the director general of the ICMR, stated the following:
“The Public-Private Partnership was executed under a formal Memorandum of Understanding between the ICMR and the BBIL [Bharat Biotech] which includes a royalty clause for the ICMR on net sales and other clauses like prioritisation of in-country supplies. The product IP is shared. It is also agreed that the name of ICMR-National Institute of Virology will be printed on the vaccine boxes.”
https://www.livelaw.in/pdf_upload/uoi-affidavit-9052021-final-with-annexures-1-91-393168.pdf IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIACIVIL ORIGINAL JURISDICTIONSUO MOTO WRIT PETITION (C) NO.3/2021IN THE MATTER OF:-IN RE : DISTRIBUTION OF ESSENTIAL SUPPLIES AND SERVICES DURING PANDEMIC
The DTE report said India has adequate capacity — the country has a panel of seven PSUs that have the capability to produce vaccines. But the manufacturing licences of three of these PSUs — Central Research Institute, Kasauli; BCG Vaccine Laboratory, Guindy; and Pasteur Institute of India, Conoor — had been cancelled in 2008 as they were not following the good manufacturing practices laid down in the Drugs and Cosmetic Rules, 1945.
In 2012, a decision was taken to revive these units. However, they were not made fully functional.
The DTE investigation revealed that India also has an Integrated Vaccine Complex in Tamil Nadu which was established to provide vaccines needed for the country’s Universal Immunisation Programme after the closure of the PSUs. Though ready since 2016, this unit too is defunct at the moment.
Its employees have not been paid their full salaries.
In a belated move, on April 16, 2021, the government announced a plan to include three PSUs in the vaccine-making process:
Haffkine Biopharmaceutical Corporation Ltd, Mumbai (a state PSU)
Indian Immunologicals Limited, Hyderabad (a facility under the National Dairy Development Board)
Bharat Immunologicals and Biologicals Limited, Bulandshahr (under the Department of Biotechnology).
Grants will be provided to upgrade these units.
The Union government has also decided to support Bharat Biotech to upgrade its facilities. All these steps are expected to double the current production capacity of the indigenously developed Covaxin by May-June 2021, and increase it nearly six to seven times by July-August 2021.
Vaccine production is expected to go up from one crore doses a month in April 2021 to about seven crore doses in July-August 2021, and nearly 10 crore doses per month by September 2021.
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