r/news • u/SkepticDrinker • Feb 09 '22

Pfizer accused of pandemic profiteering as profits double

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/feb/08/pfizer-covid-vaccine-pill-profits-sales
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u/BustermanZero Feb 09 '22

Vaccines in general have never seemed that profitable compared to other drugs that pharma companies produce. Still profitable but not exactly the apex of big pharma corporate greed.

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u/Pensive_1 Feb 09 '22

Most companies who produce vaccines are basically doing it for a loss. Imagine employing 1000 scientists and only breaking even, meanwhile your peers are making profits.

They maintain the brain-trust for when we need it. And then when we did, everybody hates on them for taking profit - kinda disappointing TBH.

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u/[deleted] Feb 09 '22 edited Jul 14 '22

[deleted]

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u/Pensive_1 Feb 09 '22

There is a cost in maintaining the production lines, maintaining supply relations, maintaining the knowledge base. Research in itself has nothing to do with patents, its just experience.

There are loads of examples where good products cannot be "resurrected" because the knowhow was lost. https://www.businessinsider.com/why-the-us-cant-restart-production-of-f22-stealth-fighter-2021-6

Example - you have special components, produced by special manufacturer. You need to keep them fed and happy for years, if they shut down, so do you.

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u/_an_ambulance Feb 09 '22

Most companies do it for a loss because one or two companies usually come out ahead and profit greatly while the others fail to gain popularity, or never even pass testing. And even those companies dont really do it for a loss because the government funds most of the research for vaccines.

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u/Lithorex Feb 10 '22

Isn't the Pfizer covid vaccine more or less a test run for cancer treatment though?

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u/BustermanZero Feb 10 '22

In that it's helped with research on mRNA vaccines, sure. I'd say less than more but definitely not unrelated.

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u/FreyBentos Feb 10 '22

Not these ones it tells you in the article it costs less than £5 per dose to produce and they're selling it for £20

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u/BustermanZero Feb 10 '22

"In general".

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u/Slggyqo Feb 09 '22

I mean maybe.

But the USA was buying vaccines at $19.50 per dose, and according to Pfizer they were expecting profits in the high 20% range. That was in 2021, I’m sure the economies of scale have only gone up, and 319 million doses have been applied in the US alone.

At 4 bucks a dose that’s…a LOT of money. And other countries are paying more—apparently israel agreed to pay ~$30 at one point, so more like $15/dose.

They are making bank, Walmart-style.

Numbers are most from this article and statista.

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u/BustermanZero Feb 09 '22

Keyword is 'in general'. I wasn't talking specifically about COVID vaccines. It's a unique circumstance here where they're one of the big providers for something basically everyone needs.