Comment: Let Pfizer profit from the vaccine
ON a golf course somewhere in America a very angry, very orange soon to be ex-President is fuming.
If Donald Trump is inclined to add Pfizer to the list of people who cheated him out of an election rightfully his, it is just about possible to have some sympathy.
If the drug giant had made this announcement on a Covid vaccine two weeks, even one week ago, maybe Trump would have walked it.
Trump aside, other questions now pose themselves, most of them to do with money.
Bill Gruber, one of Pfizer’s top vaccine scientists, said of the news: “I’m near-ecstatic. This is a great day for public health and for the potential to get us all out of the circumstances we’re now in.”
How are his share options looking?
The question of whether Pfizer should be allowed to make profit from this vaccine is tricky. On the face of it, perhaps not. But then again, why not?
So far as we know, no government sponsorship was involved in this breakthrough. A US drug giant – a much maligned corner of the corporate world – pursued a cure in the public good. If it has found one, would it be churlish to deny it the chance to cash in?
Should Pfizer be forced to share its mircale mixture far and wide?
Well probably. On the other hand, if Pfizer were inclined to think that governments across the globe have made a total hash of Covid and that the best outfit to fix it is indeed Pfizer, who could really argue?
Free marketeers will note that this solution, if it is one, came from the private sector.
Aside from Nobel prizes, what is the incentive for drug companies to run expensive experiments and trials if they in the end can’t be seen to profit from their findings?
If the Pfizer scheme works, that company and its partners will have saved humanity much heartache and trillions of dollars.
Let them make a fraction of that in return for their efforts.
