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As more than half a dozen pharmaceutical companies compete to develop vaccines to combat COVID-19, AstraZeneca has stood out for its promise that it will not try to profit from its injection until the pandemic is over.
Now, the company may be backtracking that vote a bit.
AstraZeneca could declare the end of the pandemic in July 2021, according to a memorandum of understanding obtained by the Financial Times between the company and a Brazilian manufacturer. The pandemic period could be extended if AstraZeneca determines it is not over, the memo said.
How will AstraZeneca make that determination? The company is not very long on details. “It will seek guidance from experts, including global organizations,” said a company spokesperson.
The spokesperson did not confirm the existence of the memo, but said in a statement that the company’s approach is to treat the COVID-19 vaccine “as a response to a global public health emergency, not as a business opportunity.”
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In July, AstraZeneca told Fierce Pharma that it would price the vaccine “to support broad and equitable access around the world,” and the company’s executive vice president of biopharmaceutical R&D, Mene Pangalos, said in a statement. prepared statement that under the supply agreements formed at that time the company would not make a profit. That statement was prepared for a hearing in Congress.
Johnson & Johnson, which is also working on a COVID-19 vaccine, has joined AstraZeneca on the nonprofit promise, but other companies have not been as enthusiastic about the prospect of not getting a return on their investments to help end the pandemic. .
Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla, for example, said in July that the idea of vaccine developers giving up profits from COVID-19 vaccines was “very fanatical and radical,” and that the company hopes to make a profit. “marginal” with his vaccine.
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AstraZeneca, which is developing its COVID-19 vaccine with the University of Oxford, has been closing supply deals to meet what it expects to be a demand of 3 billion doses. Most recently, it formed a three-year, $ 60 million agreement with Oxford Biomedica to reserve vaccine manufacturing space at three sites. Oxford Biomedica won UK approval for a fourth vaccine manufacturing site earlier this week.
Creating multiple supply chains for the COVID-19 vaccine “will ensure that access is timely, comprehensive and equitable for high- and low-income countries alike,” the spokesperson said.
However, AstraZeneca’s effort with the COVID-19 vaccine has been anything but straightforward. The clinical trial of the vaccine was halted over safety concerns stemming from the British study, in which a patient suffered spinal cord damage. British regulators quickly resumed the trial there, but it is still on hold in the United States while the National Institutes of Health completes an investigation.
