Pfizer Accused of Profiteering - Surely Not?!

"Wherever there is a great fortune, there is a great crime". It's an old saying, and it may not always be true. But in the case of Pfizer's Covid-19 jab bonanza, it certainly is. The Big Pharma giant made nearly $37bn (£27bn) in sales from its Covid-19 vaccine last year – making it one of the most lucrative products in history. The company is now forecasting another bumper year in 2022, with a big boost coming from its Covid-19 pill Paxlovid.

The US drugmaker’s overall revenues in 2021 doubled to $81.3bn, and it expects to make record revenues of $98bn to $102bn this year. You can buy an awful lot of politicians, university researchers and media outlets with the small change out of that!

The bumper sales prompted accusations from campaigners of “pandemic profiteering”. The group Global Justice Now said the annual revenue of $81bn was more than the GDP of most countries and accused Pfizer of “ripping off public health systems”. Unfortunately, such leftw-ing groups refuse to comment on the far worse scandals that underlie the so-called 'pandemic'.

The Covid jab Comirnaty, which the New-York based pharma firm developed with the much smaller German company BioNTech, brought in $12.5bn in revenues in the final quarter of 2021, taking the total for the year to $36.8bn. Pfizer said it had exceeded its target of manufacturing 3bn doses of the vaccine last year.

The drugmaker made a net profit of nearly $22bn last year, up from $9.1bn in 2020. It increased its 2022 estimate for Comirnaty sales to $32bn and expects Paxlovid to contribute $22bn in revenues.

The pill, which - just like the demonised product Ivermectin - boasts nearly 90% success in preventing severe illness among vulnerable adults if taken soon after becoming infected with Covid-19, was approved for emergency use by the US regulator in late December.

A few days later, Paxlovid received the green light in the UK, where the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency described it as a “life-saving” treatment. It has now received emergency approval in 40 countries.

Pfizer’s Covid-19 jab was invented by BioNTech, supported by €100m (£84m) in debt financing from the publicly owned European Investment Bank and a €375m grant from the German government. Privatise the losses, nationalise the losses - that's one of the key names of the corporate game. But not the only one.....

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