As Biden is preparing to end the nation's free coronavirus vaccine program Pfizer announced that it will soon raise the price of its Covid-19 shot to between $110 and $130 per dose in the U.S.
The People's Vaccine Alliance said in a statement Friday that Pfizer's planned price hike would amount to a 10,000% markup above the cost of producing the vaccine, which is estimated to be as low as $1.18 per dose. The U.S. currently pays around $30 per dose for Pfizer's shot.
"While health workers and the vulnerable continue to go unvaccinated in developing countries, Pfizer is shamelessly fleecing the public for ever-greater sums of money," said Julia Kosgei, policy adviser to the People's Vaccine Alliance. "This latest obscene price hike is truly a mask-off moment for one of the great profiteers of this pandemic." Kosgei added, "This is daylight robbery."
In the second quarter of this year, Pfizer reported a 78% increase in overall profit compared to the same period in 2021 and said its coronavirus vaccine revenue was $32 billion.
At present, just 23.3% of people in low-income countries have received at least one coronavirus vaccine dose.
World Health Organization Director of Health Emergencies Mike Ryan said the failure to ensure global vaccine equity and prevent millions of deaths was "because of the greed of the north" and "the greed of the pharmaceutical industry.
"We failed because of the self-interest of certain member states that were not prepared to share," Ryan pointed out.
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