Pfizer CEO defends companies benefiting from coronavirus vaccines

• There are 164 coronavirus vaccine projects underway, according to the World Health Organization.
• Pfizer is working with European pharmaceutical firm BioNTech to create a coronavirus vaccine that it plans to make available for emergency use this fall.
• Lawmakers urge companies to sell their vaccines at cost.
• The Pfizer CEO in a recent interview defending companies that make a profit on vaccines.
• Visit the Business Insider home page for more stories.

As coronavirus vaccine candidates continue their trials before obtaining FDA approval, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla disagrees with the idea that companies developing them should not make a profit.

“I think it is very wrong,” Bourla told Barron’s Tuesday. “The private sector found the solution for the diagnosis … and it is [the] way to find more solutions for therapies and vaccines. “

Phase 3 trials of the Pfizer vaccine candidate began this week. According to Bourla, the vaccine is “running meticulously well.”

If approved for emergency use, Pfizer will send 100 million doses for use by the US government The United States government will pay $ 1.95 billion for these doses, a total of approximately $ 19.50 per injection.

Pfizer is not the only company hoping to have a vaccine ready for the fall.

AstraZeneca / Oxford and Moderna are also on track to have their vaccines ready for emergency use. People at high risk of contracting the virus, including healthcare workers and the elderly, may receive the vaccine if approved by the FDA for this use.

There are no solid figures on how much a company can earn from a coronavirus vaccine once it hits the market.

Last week, Rep. Jan Schakowsky-Ill. It asked companies that received government assistance in developing the coronavirus vaccine to sell the vaccine at cost, according to NPR. While the responses varied, it is important to note that Pfizer did not use government funds to develop its vaccines.

“During the pandemic, we just went with the price that is the lowest end of everything that exists,” Bourla said in the interview. “They are fractions of the vaccines of this high technology that are sold [for] In the USA”

AstraZeneca has asked to sell its vaccine for non-profit to the government, while Johnson & Johnson will sell its vaccine at a “non-profit price” for the use of an emergency pandemic.