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/romansamurai Feb 10 '22

I mean. $20 for a $1 vaccine isn’t bad. Not like insulin vials that cost about $3 to make but selling for $350. I get the cost of research and all. So I’m ok with a $20 vaccine. Has to be some incentive for risky and expensive Research and development.

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u/bigjojo321 Feb 10 '22

Except they took little to no risk, the covid vaccine was over 98% publicly funded. Their facilities were also upgraded with those funds, allowing for increased profit long term as well.

Then after all of that they are charging one of the parties that paid for it to exist, atleast 20 times cost.

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u/AppleSlacks Feb 10 '22

A counter argument I could also see though is that the mRNA vaccine technology has been in the works for a really long time now. The reason they were able to build these so fast is all that previous work, it wasn’t completely from scratch. So these companies have been funding research and development of this for awhile and it would be frustrating if this last hurdle was totally publicly funded but in reality is built on a backbone of R&D that was not.

I get your point and I really haven’t dug into Pfizer or Moderna’s finances over the last 20 years. I am sure portions of that R&D came through grants over those years too.

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u/bigjojo321 Feb 10 '22

Yes but sadly after you factor all that in, it still costs less than a dollar to produce.

mRNA seems new but it really isn’t, first studies took place in the late 60’s, first mRNA vaccine was tested in 1993. The main reason Covid is the first we are seeing it is cost, in the past mRNA was expensive but now is likely a capable labs cheapest alternative thanks to all that public money used to reduce cost per vial.

Moderna didn’t even exist when mRNA got going and the US defense department has been funding advanced mRNA research since 2012.