The recent announcement that the United States Trade Representative will discuss options to waive some COVID-19 vaccine intellectual property (IP) rights has created some confusion to the world. Has Pfizer done enough to ensure fair and equitable distribution of our COVID-19 vaccine? Is the proposed waiver going to bring solutions or create more problems? I am writing to you today to discuss these questions.
Fair and equitable distribution was our North Star from day one. In order to ensure that every country can have access to our COVID-19 vaccine two conditions had to be met: a price that anyone can afford and reliable manufacturing of enough vaccine for all.
The first condition was met in the early days. Back in June of 2020 we decided to offer our vaccine through tiered pricing. The wealthier nations would have to pay in the range of about the cost of a takeaway meal and would offer it to their citizens for free. The middle-income countries were offered doses at roughly half that price and the low-income countries were offered doses at cost. Many of the poorest communities will receive their doses through donation. Equity doesn’t mean we give everyone the same. Equity means we give more to those that need more.
Meeting the second condition was much more challenging but we are getting there with remarkable speed. Thanks to the ingenuity and hard work of our scientists, engineers and skilled workers, and multibillion dollars of Pfizer investment, we announced that we will provide to the world more than 2.5 billion doses in 2021. In fact, our internal target is 3 billion doses, so we feel quite comfortable about our commitment. Achieving 3 billion doses this year means, by extrapolation, 4 billion doses in 2022.These doses are not for the rich or poor, not for the north or south. These are doses for ALL. We have concluded agreements to supply 116 countries and we are currently in advanced negotiations with many more for a total of approximately 2.7 billion doses in 2021. Upon finalization of all agreements, we expect that 40% of them, or more than 1 billion doses, will go to middle- and low-income countries in 2021.
This clearly poses another question. Until today, we have shipped approximately 450 million doses and the balance is more favorable to high income countries. Why is that? When we developed our tiered pricing policy, we reached out to all nations asking them to place orders so we could allocate doses for them. In reality, the high-income countries reserved most of the doses. I became personally concerned with that and I reached out to many heads of middle/low-income countries by letter, phone and even text to urge them to reserve doses because the supply was limited. However, most of them decided to place orders with other vaccine makers either because mRNA technology was untested at that time or because they were offered local production options. Some didn’t even approve our vaccine. Unfortunately, other vaccine producers were not able to meet their supply commitments for varying technical reasons. Most of the countries that did not choose us initially, came back and thanks to our phenomenal supply ramp up, we have started signing supply agreements with them. We expect the supply balance to weigh in their favor in the second half of 2021, and to have virtually enough supply for all in 2022.
Last week, I had the opportunity to provide these facts to the US Trade Representative and explain why the suggested waiver of IP rights could only derail this progress. Which brings me to the second question. Is the proposed waiver going to improve the supply situation or create more problems? And my answer is categorically the latter.
When we created our vaccine there was no manufacturing production of any mRNA vaccine or medicine anywhere in the world. We had to create manufacturing infrastructure from scratch. With 172 years of quality manufacturing tradition, substantial deployment of capital, and more importantly, an army of highly skilled scientists, engineers and manufacturing workers, we developed in record time the most efficient manufacturing machine of a life-saving vaccine that the world has ever seen. Currently, infrastructure is not the bottleneck for us manufacturing faster. The restriction is the scarcity of highly specialized raw materials needed to produce our vaccine. These 280 different materials or components are produced by many suppliers in 19 different countries. Many of them needed our substantial support (technical and financial) to ramp up their production. Right now, virtually every single gram of raw material produced is shipped immediately into our manufacturing facilities and is converted immediately and reliably to vaccines that are shipped immediately around the world (91 countries to date.) The proposed waiver for COVID-19 vaccines, threatens to disrupt the flow of raw materials. It will unleash a scramble for the critical inputs we require in order to make a safe and effective vaccine. Entities with little or no experience in manufacturing vaccines are likely to chase the very raw materials we require to scale our production, putting the safety and security of all at risk.
And I would like to make a final point. I worry that waiving of patent protection will disincentivize anyone else from taking a big risk. We deployed $2 billion before we knew whether we could successfully develop a vaccine because we understood what was at stake. Just recently, I authorized spending an additional $600 million on COVID-19 research and development that will bring our total spend for R&D in 2021 to more than $10 billion . The recent rhetoric will not discourage us from continuing investing in science. But I am not sure if the same is true for the thousands of small biotech innovators that are totally dependent on accessing capital from investors who invest only on the premise that their intellectual property will be protected.
Ending the pandemic and vaccinating the world is a massive, but achievable undertaking. We remain fully focused on getting high-quality, safe and effective vaccines to patients all over the world as quickly as possible and to putting an end to this deadly pandemic. Once again, we will not let politics stand in our way and we will continue doing what we do best – creating breakthroughs that change patients’ lives.
One of the key discoveries that allowed the mRNA vaccine field to expand was based on research by Kariko et al. (2005 and 2008) on the incorporation of modified nucleoside into mRNA to increase stability and to ablate the mammalian innate immune response through the activation of Toll-like receptors (patented technology filed by the Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania). The other key discovery was the use of lipid particles to protect and deliver the RNA molecule into the cells (patented by Protiva Therapeutics, now Arbutus Biopharma). The combination of these two discoveries allowed the field to expand, with an approximate 9-fold increase in patent publications between 2009 and 2020.
Dear Colleagues,
The recent announcement that the United States Trade Representative will discuss options to waive some COVID-19 vaccine intellectual property (IP) rights has created some confusion to the world. Has Pfizer done enough to ensure fair and equitable distribution of our COVID-19 vaccine? Is the proposed waiver going to bring solutions or create more problems? I am writing to you today to discuss these questions.
Fair and equitable distribution was our North Star from day one. In order to ensure that every country can have access to our COVID-19 vaccine two conditions had to be met: a price that anyone can afford and reliable manufacturing of enough vaccine for all.
The first condition was met in the early days. Back in June of 2020 we decided to offer our vaccine through tiered pricing. The wealthier nations would have to pay in the range of about the cost of a takeaway meal and would offer it to their citizens for free. The middle-income countries were offered doses at roughly half that price and the low-income countries were offered doses at cost. Many of the poorest communities will receive their doses through donation. Equity doesn’t mean we give everyone the same. Equity means we give more to those that need more.
Meeting the second condition was much more challenging but we are getting there with remarkable speed. Thanks to the ingenuity and hard work of our scientists, engineers and skilled workers, and multibillion dollars of Pfizer investment, we announced that we will provide to the world more than 2.5 billion doses in 2021. In fact, our internal target is 3 billion doses, so we feel quite comfortable about our commitment. Achieving 3 billion doses this year means, by extrapolation, 4 billion doses in 2022. These doses are not for the rich or poor, not for the north or south. These are doses for ALL. We have concluded agreements to supply 116 countries and we are currently in advanced negotiations with many more for a total of approximately 2.7 billion doses in 2021. Upon finalization of all agreements, we expect that 40% of them, or more than 1 billion doses, will go to middle- and low-income countries in 2021.
This clearly poses another question. Until today, we have shipped approximately 450 million doses and the balance is more favorable to high income countries. Why is that? When we developed our tiered pricing policy, we reached out to all nations asking them to place orders so we could allocate doses for them. In reality, the high-income countries reserved most of the doses. I became personally concerned with that and I reached out to many heads of middle/low-income countries by letter, phone and even text to urge them to reserve doses because the supply was limited. However, most of them decided to place orders with other vaccine makers either because mRNA technology was untested at that time or because they were offered local production options. Some didn’t even approve our vaccine. Unfortunately, other vaccine producers were not able to meet their supply commitments for varying technical reasons. Most of the countries that did not choose us initially, came back and thanks to our phenomenal supply ramp up, we have started signing supply agreements with them. We expect the supply balance to weigh in their favor in the second half of 2021, and to have virtually enough supply for all in 2022.
Last week, I had the opportunity to provide these facts to the US Trade Representative and explain why the suggested waiver of IP rights could only derail this progress. Which brings me to the second question. Is the proposed waiver going to improve the supply situation or create more problems? And my answer is categorically the latter.
When we created our vaccine there was no manufacturing production of any mRNA vaccine or medicine anywhere in the world. We had to create manufacturing infrastructure from scratch. With 172 years of quality manufacturing tradition, substantial deployment of capital, and more importantly, an army of highly skilled scientists, engineers and manufacturing workers, we developed in record time the most efficient manufacturing machine of a life-saving vaccine that the world has ever seen. Currently, infrastructure is not the bottleneck for us manufacturing faster. The restriction is the scarcity of highly specialized raw materials needed to produce our vaccine. These 280 different materials or components are produced by many suppliers in 19 different countries. Many of them needed our substantial support (technical and financial) to ramp up their production. Right now, virtually every single gram of raw material produced is shipped immediately into our manufacturing facilities and is converted immediately and reliably to vaccines that are shipped immediately around the world (91 countries to date.) The proposed waiver for COVID-19 vaccines, threatens to disrupt the flow of raw materials. It will unleash a scramble for the critical inputs we require in order to make a safe and effective vaccine. Entities with little or no experience in manufacturing vaccines are likely to chase the very raw materials we require to scale our production, putting the safety and security of all at risk.
And I would like to make a final point. I worry that waiving of patent protection will disincentivize anyone else from taking a big risk. We deployed $2 billion before we knew whether we could successfully develop a vaccine because we understood what was at stake. Just recently, I authorized spending an additional $600 million on COVID-19 research and development that will bring our total spend for R&D in 2021 to more than $10 billion . The recent rhetoric will not discourage us from continuing investing in science. But I am not sure if the same is true for the thousands of small biotech innovators that are totally dependent on accessing capital from investors who invest only on the premise that their intellectual property will be protected.
Ending the pandemic and vaccinating the world is a massive, but achievable undertaking. We remain fully focused on getting high-quality, safe and effective vaccines to patients all over the world as quickly as possible and to putting an end to this deadly pandemic. Once again, we will not let politics stand in our way and we will continue doing what we do best – creating breakthroughs that change patients’ lives.
Albert
德国人多精明，看看一战二战德国人如何给日耳曼争利益。现在提议放弃有德国利益在内的IP, 那是千万个不会答应的，痴人说梦罢了
One of the key discoveries that allowed the mRNA vaccine field to expand was based on research by Kariko et al. (2005 and 2008) on the incorporation of modified nucleoside into mRNA to increase stability and to ablate the mammalian innate immune response through the activation of Toll-like receptors (patented technology filed by the Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania). The other key discovery was the use of lipid particles to protect and deliver the RNA molecule into the cells (patented by Protiva Therapeutics, now Arbutus Biopharma). The combination of these two discoveries allowed the field to expand, with an approximate 9-fold increase in patent publications between 2009 and 2020.
信息量不小
1） 成本：穷国offered at cost, 富国20/dose, 中等国家 10/dose, cost <10; 这里有个有趣的问题，成本到底是多少？ 我猜疫苗的边际成本极低，前置成本极高，2020年的成本跟2021-2022年的会有天壤之别，不知道Pfizer怎么算这笔账。
2）产量：2020年产量450M以下（这个数字包括部分2021）， 2021年2-3B，2022年4B； 21-22年产量40%分配给发展中国家
2021年收入 3B*(60%*20 + 40% * 10) =48B，分给合作伙伴一半， 剩下24B; 翻了一下2019年辉瑞财报收入400多亿。也就是说Covid能给辉瑞带来每年200-300亿收入。厉害！
但是考虑到辉瑞去年花了1-2B搞3期，今年还要花1B，这么多钱一下子就没了。现在又被政治限制住收钱的天花板，管理层白忙活，股东白欢喜
搞生物的不就指着靠疫苗赚钱
不理解为啥被众多发展中国家拒绝。
大概中国俄罗斯的疫苗更便宜吧。。。
这个事情去年南非就嚷嚷来着，现在是印度嚷嚷，我觉得他们嚷那么厉害，很大程度也是造声势，转移国内民众对政府的批评。
美国政府做出一个积极的姿态，然后大家还是在法律框架下综合长短期利益好好谈判，其间药厂在这个压力下必定竭尽全力增加产量降低价钱，也是一种督促吧。还是盼望印度疫情快快调头往下走。
可以免费援助
https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/2k0Pbb56O_X5COwNtvNz5g
制造不出来是另一回事
真没钱的可以考虑成本价
脑满肥肠。美国现在为什么不能靠自己国民当小白鼠试出来的疫苗去赚回一些损失？
在大中华区的专利卖给了一家中国公司
德国技术也不是你中国的。默克尔更不会白给你
现在动上疫苗的脑筋了
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/04/world/asia/china-india-covid.html
这样做也很恶心。
都一样的恶心。
自己点火箭
要不然大家都去做happy 水管工了。