[ad_1]
On Monday, the news sent the world into a state of excitement: Pfizer and Biontech, two heavyweights in the vaccination industry, are said to have developed the first highly effective vaccine against the coronavirus, with a protective effect of more than 90 percent.
Steve Pascolo (55), an immunologist at the University of Zurich, sees it positively: “The applause is justified. The news this week is very good, the joy is correspondingly great. “You are almost there. However, the success report is not a surprise:” There is a good chance that we will get a vaccine this year. The results of the summer seemed promising, the success story was only a matter of time. “
Other experts are much more cautious. Michael Nawrath (57), Pharmaceutical Analyst at Zürcher Kantonalbank: “The reaction to the report was completely exaggerated. It’s been a great day for science, but we’re still a long way from a vaccine. Too many things are not clear. “
For example, no one knows how long vaccination protection will last or whether vaccinated people are contagious. Furthermore, only 94 infected people were examined in the interim analysis; the 90 percent provisional vaccination protection was extrapolated from this limited group. However, there were no elderly patients at risk among those examined.
Nawrath clarifies when the vaccine will actually be on the market, how well it will work, and who will benefit from it. Their conclusion: “The message from Pfizer / Biontech was sadly conveyed and raised too much hope.”
“The message puts pressure on every page”
Patrick Durisch (55) of the independent organization Public Eye is also upset by the approach of the pharmaceutical giant. New developments are usually examined more closely before they are made public. “The clamor is now causing great pressure on all sides, for example on the regulatory authorities,” says the health expert. “The question arises as to whether companies have not acted too hastily in mutual competition.”
Among other things, Durisch disagrees with the fact that the pharmaceutical industry can benefit from the success of the public investigation. The World Health Organization and other institutions reportedly took billions into their hands to investigate the virus. “The pharmaceutical companies, on the other hand, did not participate in the investigation. Now they are making vaccines based on research and selling them at a profit, ”says Durisch.
Marcel Sennhauser, deputy director of the pharmaceutical association Scienceindustries, says that pharmaceutical companies participated in the research. “According to our calculations, the development of a new therapy costs more than a billion francs,” says Sennhauser. Additionally, only one in ten research projects is crowned successful on average, resulting in high downtime costs.
The monopoly of the industry is also increasingly notorious. Only a few companies are still able to manufacture drugs or vaccines in large quantities. Swiss companies Roche and Novartis, for example, have exited the vaccination business.
40, 50 or 70 francs per vaccination dose?
Companies that can now set market prices will practically benefit from this. Pfizer will charge about $ 40 per person vaccinated, which is about the same as a regular flu shot. At Moderna, on the other hand, you pay nearly double at $ 70. Plus, large sums of money are already pouring into advance reservations.
This week the Federal Council increased the procurement budget from CHF 300 million to CHF 400 million, without knowing exactly which vaccines will be released, when and in what quality.
It would be around 50 francs per capita, a high figure by international standards. The United States, for example, has allocated about 15 francs per person to reserve vaccines in a first step. The vaccine market, with a total volume of around 50 billion dollars and an annual growth of seven percent, should in any case grow strongly again.
Industry representative Sennhauser emphasizes that despite high spending by industrial nations, all countries should have a chance. “The pharmaceutical industry is eager to support a fair distribution between the states. These discussions are currently taking place at the international level. The supply from countries with smaller health budgets is a prominent issue. “
Public Eye experts are skeptical of these statements. According to his calculations, ideally eight billion doses of vaccination will be available in 2021, which is enough for almost four billion vaccines at best. At present, however, nine billion cans are already reserved. This means that not all countries will have access at the same speed.
For the health expert Patrick Durisch, therefore, it is clear: “There is little sense of solidarity in the current situation, whether between pharmaceutical companies or between states.”
