The scale of the profiteering from the pandemic by pharmaceutical giants comes amid warnings that coronavirus variants will keep surfacing unless wealthy nations and vaccine manufacturers do more to address vaccination inequity.
Since the discovery of omicron was made to the WHO from South Africa on November 24, investors in Pfizer and Moderna vaccines made over £7.8bn in stocks growth in a week.
A small number of top shareholders of the two most prominent manufacturers of vaccines that help protect against COVID-19, enjoyed a colossal injection of new wealth in the week that the new variant was discovered.
Within the seven days to November 30, shares in Pfizer increased by 7.4% and shares in Moderna rose by 13.6%.
The figures are based on data composed by Global Justice Now, a democratic social justice organisation aimed at creating a more equal world.
Moderna CEO adds £800m to personal wealth
The research found that in the wake of the emergence of the new variant, the CEO of Moderna added an additional £800m to his personal wealth. Stephane Bancel is reported to have made $623m in the week following the omicron discovery, as the value of shares rose by 7.41% from £38.36 a share to £41.20 a share.
On November 26, the day after the omicron variant was announced, Bancel reportedly sold 10,000 shares for £240.38 each, equating to around £2.4m.
The scale of the profiteering from the pandemic by pharmaceutical giants comes as warnings have been made by global public health experts that coronavirus variants will keep surfacing unless wealthy nations and vaccine manufacturers do more to address vaccination inequality.
More needs to be done to address vaccine inequity
The omicron variant has opened the world’s eyes to the dangers of leaving billions of people unvaccinated while rich countries hordes millions of vaccine doses.
Nick Dearden, director of Global Justice Now UK, commented: “The companies that make the most are doing the least to share their technology.
“The priority is making enormous amounts of money for some of the richest people in the world.”
Both Pfizer and Moderna came under fire recently for fighting to keep Covid vaccine recipes a secret.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the WHO, derided the “shocking imbalance” in the supply of vaccines.
Tedros said it was unacceptable that manufacturers’ pursuit of the highest prices meant they were overwhelmingly supplying rich countries, resulting in booster shots being rolled out in the same wealthy nations.
“Honestly I’m not seeing the commitment I would expect from you,” Tedros was reported telling the vaccine developers.
Hitting back, Pfizer’s chief executive Albert Bourla, whose company has inoculated more than a billion people worldwide, responded, saying Tedros was speaking “emotionally.”
Omicron surges through Britain
As those with shares in the vaccine giants make millions in their sleep, the omicron variant is surging its way through Britain, with cases doubling every 2 – 3 days.
Pointing to the U.K’s 2.5-day doubling time of cases, Danny Altmann, professor of immunology at Imperial College London, told CNBC that “the omicron data is enormously worrying.”
To help save the NHS huge sums of money so it can be used on investing in more frontline staff, and increase global access to Covid-19 vaccinations, campaigners are calling on the UK government to break the monopoly held by Pfizer and Moderna.
Tim Bierley, pharma campaigner at Global Justice Now, said: “Pharmaceutical companies knew that grotesque levels of vaccine inequality would create prime conditions for new variants to emerge.
“They let Covid-19 spread unabated in low and middle-income countries. And now the same pharma execs and shareholders are making a killing from a crisis they helped to create. It’s utterly obscene.”
“It’s long past time for the UK and the EU to stand on the side of global health instead of vaccine billionaires—and get behind an intellectual property waiver on Covid-19 vaccines, tests, and treatments, Bierley continued.
Gabrielle Pickard-Whitehead is a freelance journalist and contributing editor to Left Foot Forward.
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