Public health experts have warned for years that the world is at risk of a major pandemic, and advocates say Big Pharma showed little interest in developing vaccines – or even antibiotic and antiviral medications — until the latest outbreak offered an opportunity to rake in public funding and turn out massive profits with minimal risk. Now that COVID-19 has spread across the planet, the industry boasts that at least 310 clinical trials for treatments and vaccines for the virus are underway across the world, including 40 in the United States.
Antibiotic and antiviral drugs are usually prescribed for short periods of time and therefore generally don’t yield blockbuster sales. The pharmaceutical industry has gradually abandoned vaccine development over the past 50 years as it focused on lifestyle drugs and treatments for chronic conditions such as cancer that are in consistent demand. Drug companies also substantially decreased their investment in treatments and vaccines for emerging infectious diseases over the past decade. In 2018, only 1 percent of the global pharmaceutical industry’s research and development spending focused on emerging infectious diseases.
Drug companies have historically pleased investors by promoting vaccine development programs during disease outbreaks, then quietly dropping them later. Despite an outbreak raging in the Republic of Congo, the British drug maker GlaxoSmithKline recently gave up its effort to develop a vaccine for Ebola. In 2017, the French drug maker Sanofi pulled out of a partnership with the U.S. Army to develop a vaccine for the mosquito-borne Zika virus.
“Big Pharma’s business model is one of maximizing shareholder value — and it hinges on short-term returns,” Dana Brown, director of The Next System Project, a research and development lab said. “There’s little if any gain for shareholders when companies invest in vaccine development…. A number of companies report losing money on Ebola or SARS vaccines programs.”
Last year, there were only six active clinical trials of vaccines and therapeutics for coronaviruses involving private drug companies, and all of them depend heavily on public funding. Had there been more sustained interest in the private sector, researchers would have more tools for combating the current outbreak, such as more platform technologies for vaccine development.
“With COVID-19, the US government has eliminated many risks that often dissuade drug companies from vaccine investments,” wrote David Mitchell and Ben Wakana with Patients for Affordable Drugs in a blog post. “By bankrolling research, sponsoring clinical trials, and eliminating all liability for drug corporations, American taxpayers are heavily subsidizing drug corporations’ search for a COVID-19 vaccine.”
Generous government incentives have turned the pandemic into a massive business opportunity, but private drug companies will only remain involved if there is money to be made. The large role of private companies in the vaccine quest raises concerns about their commitment to research as well as patient access to the vaccine itself. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) partnership has no “access provisions” requiring private companies that benefit from public funding to make the medicines they develop accessible and affordable for patients. Private companies will likely want exclusive licenses and marketing rights in exchange for their investment in COVID-19 drug development, advocates say. This could create huge shortages of a vaccine, particularly in lower-income countries.
“This is simply an instance in which a competitive, market environment is not an apt vehicle for solving the problem,” Brown said. “Only an open, collaborative approach to coronavirus vaccine development can assure a safe and effective vaccine will be made accessible to all — and it would speed up the process of discovery as well.”
Antibiotic and antiviral drugs are usually prescribed for short periods of time and therefore generally don’t yield blockbuster sales. The pharmaceutical industry has gradually abandoned vaccine development over the past 50 years as it focused on lifestyle drugs and treatments for chronic conditions such as cancer that are in consistent demand. Drug companies also substantially decreased their investment in treatments and vaccines for emerging infectious diseases over the past decade. In 2018, only 1 percent of the global pharmaceutical industry’s research and development spending focused on emerging infectious diseases.
Drug companies have historically pleased investors by promoting vaccine development programs during disease outbreaks, then quietly dropping them later. Despite an outbreak raging in the Republic of Congo, the British drug maker GlaxoSmithKline recently gave up its effort to develop a vaccine for Ebola. In 2017, the French drug maker Sanofi pulled out of a partnership with the U.S. Army to develop a vaccine for the mosquito-borne Zika virus.
“Big Pharma’s business model is one of maximizing shareholder value — and it hinges on short-term returns,” Dana Brown, director of The Next System Project, a research and development lab said. “There’s little if any gain for shareholders when companies invest in vaccine development…. A number of companies report losing money on Ebola or SARS vaccines programs.”
Last year, there were only six active clinical trials of vaccines and therapeutics for coronaviruses involving private drug companies, and all of them depend heavily on public funding. Had there been more sustained interest in the private sector, researchers would have more tools for combating the current outbreak, such as more platform technologies for vaccine development.
“With COVID-19, the US government has eliminated many risks that often dissuade drug companies from vaccine investments,” wrote David Mitchell and Ben Wakana with Patients for Affordable Drugs in a blog post. “By bankrolling research, sponsoring clinical trials, and eliminating all liability for drug corporations, American taxpayers are heavily subsidizing drug corporations’ search for a COVID-19 vaccine.”
Generous government incentives have turned the pandemic into a massive business opportunity, but private drug companies will only remain involved if there is money to be made. The large role of private companies in the vaccine quest raises concerns about their commitment to research as well as patient access to the vaccine itself. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) partnership has no “access provisions” requiring private companies that benefit from public funding to make the medicines they develop accessible and affordable for patients. Private companies will likely want exclusive licenses and marketing rights in exchange for their investment in COVID-19 drug development, advocates say. This could create huge shortages of a vaccine, particularly in lower-income countries.
“This is simply an instance in which a competitive, market environment is not an apt vehicle for solving the problem,” Brown said. “Only an open, collaborative approach to coronavirus vaccine development can assure a safe and effective vaccine will be made accessible to all — and it would speed up the process of discovery as well.”
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