Vaccines against Covid-19: Amnesty accuses pharmaceutical companies of neglecting poor countries

They have serums to fight against the Covid-19 pandemic, but are they really making the greatest number of them benefit?

In a report published on Wednesday, Amnesty International accuses the pharmaceutical companies that produce the vaccines of fueling an "unprecedented human rights crisis".

The NGO calls for the granting of two billion doses to poor countries.

In its report titled “A Double Dose of Inequality: Pharmaceutical Companies and the Covid-19 Vaccine Crisis,” Amnesty International says most of them are not prioritizing the poorest countries.

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This publication appears while a world summit on vaccines is scheduled for Wednesday.

US President Joe Biden has pledged to announce additional commitments to immunize least developed countries.

A "predictable" and "devastating" shortage

“Vaccinating the world is our only way out of this crisis.

It should be time to salute these companies, which created these vaccines so quickly, like heroes, ”Amnesty General Secretary Agnès Callamard said in a statement.

“Instead, to their shame and our collective sorrow, Big Pharma's intentional blocking of knowledge transfer and their pro-rich states maneuvers have resulted in an utterly predictable and devastating vaccine shortage for so many. others ”.

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The NGO reviewed the policies of AstraZeneca, Pfizer, BioNTech, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson and Novavax - whose vaccine is not yet approved - in terms of human rights, pricing, intellectual property, sharing of knowledge and technology, dose allocation and transparency.

She concluded that "to varying degrees, the six vaccine developers have failed to live up to their human rights responsibilities."

0.3% of doses administered in "low" income countries

Out of 5.76 billion doses administered, only 0.3% were in countries with "low" income, 79% going to countries with "middle-upper" and "high" incomes, underlines the NGO.

Pfizer, BioNTech and Moderna plan to generate a total of $ 130 billion in profits by the end of 2022, according to Amnesty, for whom "profits should never come before lives."

AstraZeneca, BioNTech, Johnson & Johnson, Moderna, Novavax and Pfizer;

six companies hold the fate of billions of people in their hands.

Laboratories that put financial interest above human interest.

Here is our survey.

👇https: //t.co/n5DEPVywWd

- Amnesty International France (@amnestyfrance) September 22, 2021

While most groups have received "billions of dollars in government funding, vaccine developers have monopolized intellectual property, blocked technology transfers, and aggressively limited measures that would expand the manufacture of these vaccines around the world." vaccines ”, accuses Amnesty.

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The NGO calls on companies and governments to "change course" to provide two billion vaccines to low and middle income countries. Contacted by the NGO before publication of the report, all these companies except Novavax responded and recognized that a fair and equitable distribution, particularly in low-income countries, is essential, and highlighted their efforts in this direction, without convincing Amnesty.